Luray, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Luray, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Luray lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Luray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Luray — the short answer
Luray, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7b is Luray's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Luray's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Luray
Each reading below is measured for Luray itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLuray runs about 235 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLuray sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Luray is in
Luray sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Luray's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henderson County.
What Grows in Luray
Every plant below cleared Luray's own zone 7b and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Luray?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Luray
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Luray. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HE:D-010Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- Willie Miller Store*Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Madison County Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Mifflin Market IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Mifflin Community MallUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Latham BrosUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Beech Bluff Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Garner GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- CS:M-010Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- Fowler's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Surratt's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- T-2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Luray's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Luray.
Total Sites
94
within ~10 miles of Luray
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Luray
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Luray
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Luray, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 60 sites within ~10 miles of Luray. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Luray
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Luray average
Your land is one point inside Luray
Everything above resolves to Luray as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Luray Average
Luray Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Luray
- ●One soil character for all of Luray
- ●Frost dates read at Luray's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Luray's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Luray
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Luray, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Luray averages can't show:
We read public map data around Luray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Luray average
How we know this about Luray
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Luray’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Luray
When does frost risk typically end in Luray?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Luray typically lands around Mar 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 10.
When is the first frost in Luray?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Luray typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Luray?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Luray sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 27, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Luray?
The federal record around Luray shows 94 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Luray?
From about Oct 11 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Luray's scale — its 7b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Luray's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Luray’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Luray's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,094 acres it covers and 94 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Luray's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Luray's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 10 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 94 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Luray, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Luray's boundary and the 2,094 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Luray's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Luray's 2,094 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henderson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henderson County
- The growing challenges every Tennessee grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Tennessee
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Henderson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Luray's 2,094 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Luray you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,094 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Luray-wide figureread your own land →