McEwen, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McEwen, 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 McEwen 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 McEwen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
McEwen — the short answer
McEwen, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 McEwen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McEwen's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McEwen
Each reading below is measured for McEwen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcEwen runs about 239 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
MeasuredMcEwen 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 McEwen is in
McEwen sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McEwen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Humphreys County.
What Grows in McEwen
Every plant below cleared McEwen's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McEwen?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 14 — 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 McEwen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McEwen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mcewen High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Bud's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- P and D Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Little General #46Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- City Of McewenUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Bucksnort Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Hs:K-010Nitrate · 1200 ft
- Yates 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Branch Gulf StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Ridings GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Rock Hill #519Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Abernathy's Gen MdseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McEwen'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 McEwen.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of McEwen
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McEwen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McEwen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McEwen, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 61 sites within ~10 miles of McEwen. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 McEwen
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 McEwen average
Your land is one point inside McEwen
Everything above resolves to McEwen as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 city 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 McEwen Average
McEwen Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across McEwen
- ●One soil character for all of McEwen
- ●Frost dates read at McEwen's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McEwen's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McEwen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McEwen, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McEwen averages can't show:
We read public map data around McEwen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McEwen average
How we know this about McEwen
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at McEwen’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 McEwen
When does frost risk typically end in McEwen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McEwen 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 McEwen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McEwen typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McEwen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McEwen sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 31, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McEwen?
The federal record around McEwen shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 McEwen?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McEwen's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McEwen'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 McEwen’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McEwen's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,180 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McEwen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McEwen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 14 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McEwen, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McEwen's boundary and the 1,180 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McEwen's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McEwen's 1,180 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Humphreys County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Humphreys 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 Humphreys County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McEwen's 1,180 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McEwen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,180 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 McEwen-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Wider growing context
What grows across TennesseeMcEwen sits outside our named growing regions, so Tennessee as a whole is its closest context here.