Mascot, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Mascot, 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 Mascot 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 Mascot — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mascot — the short answer
Mascot, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 4K 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 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Mascot's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mascot's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mascot
Each reading below is measured for Mascot itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMascot runs about 237 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
MeasuredMascot 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 Mascot is in
Mascot sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mascot's own centroid rather than borrowed from Knox County.
What Grows in Mascot
Every plant below cleared Mascot's own zone 7b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mascot?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 12 — 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 Mascot
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mascot. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Tri Technical CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Mascot PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Midway QuarryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Mullins Market #1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FLEET MANAGEMENT INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Zinc ProspectMining · 0.9 mi
- Town and Country Market #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Malone Freight Lines IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Ed's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MascotUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Immel MineUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MOORE FREIGHT SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mascot'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 Mascot.
Total Sites
437
within ~10 miles of Mascot
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mascot
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mascot
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mascot, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mascot — Toxics Release Inventory (35 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (314 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Mascot
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 Mascot average
Your land is one point inside Mascot
Everything above resolves to Mascot as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Mascot Average
Mascot Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Mascot
- ●One soil character for all of Mascot
- ●Frost dates read at Mascot's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mascot's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mascot
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mascot, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mascot averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mascot — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mascot average
How we know this about Mascot
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 Mascot’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 Mascot
When does frost risk typically end in Mascot?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mascot 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 Mascot?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mascot typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mascot?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mascot sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 29, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mascot?
The federal record around Mascot is a meaningful one — 437 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (314), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mascot?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mascot's scale — its 7b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mascot'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 Mascot’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mascot's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,458 acres it covers and 437 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mascot's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mascot's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 12 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 437 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mascot, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mascot's boundary and the 4,458 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mascot's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mascot's 4,458 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mascot's 4,458 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mascot you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,458 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Mascot-wide figureread your own land →
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