Memphis, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Memphis, 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 Memphis 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 Memphis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Memphis — the short answer
Memphis, Tennessee: USDA zone 8a, about 266 days between hard freezes, across 185K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- Shelby County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Shelby County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~266
- Shelby County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 185K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Shelby County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Memphis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Memphis's 266-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Memphis
Each reading below is measured for Memphis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMemphis runs about 266 days between hard freezes (read from Shelby County, the closest normal to Memphis) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMemphis sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Memphis is in
Memphis sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Memphis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shelby County.
What Grows in Memphis
Every plant below cleared Memphis's own zone 8a and its 266-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Memphis?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Memphis
Survey cells within 31 miles of Memphis checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 189 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Memphis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Memphis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Park Avenue CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Nakhleh's ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Kerr-mcgee #6417Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Orange Mound Tire Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Melrose High 134Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MEMPHIS CITY SCHOOLS/MELROSE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Former Dee's Fast FoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Bowling And Son Service StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Mckenzie Glass Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Norfolk Southern Railway Track DUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- S.H.Q. AUTO BODY & PAINT SHOP, INC.Brownfields · 2500 ft
- BUNTYN CLEANERS AND LAUNDRYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Memphis'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 Memphis.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Memphis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Memphis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Memphis, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Memphis — Superfund (55 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (2,028 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Memphis
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 Memphis average
Your land is one point inside Memphis
Everything above resolves to Memphis as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 185K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Shelby County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Memphis Average
Memphis Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Memphis
- ●One soil character for all of Memphis
- ●Frost dates read at Memphis's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Memphis's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Memphis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Memphis, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Memphis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Memphis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Memphis average
How we know this about Memphis
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 Shelby County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Memphis
When does frost risk typically end in Memphis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Memphis typically lands around Mar 4, 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 Mar 25.
When is the first frost in Memphis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Memphis typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 266 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Memphis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Memphis sees about 266 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 11, about 231 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Memphis?
The federal record around Memphis runs heavier than most — 3,087 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,028), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Memphis?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Memphis's scale — its 8a band and its 266-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Memphis'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 Memphis’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Memphis's own scale — the 185,451 acres it covers and 3,087 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Memphis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 3,087 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Memphis, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Memphis's boundary and the 185,451 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~266-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Memphis's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Memphis checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Memphis has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Shelby County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Memphis's 185,451 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shelby County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shelby 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 Shelby County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Memphis's 185,451 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Memphis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 185,451 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Memphis-wide figureread your own land →