Millington, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Millington, 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 Millington 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 Millington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Millington — the short answer
Millington, Tennessee: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 14K 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 8a is Millington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Millington's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Millington
Each reading below is measured for Millington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMillington runs about 261 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredMillington 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 Millington is in
Millington sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Millington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shelby County.
What Grows in Millington
Every plant below cleared Millington's own zone 8a and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Millington?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Millington
Survey cells within 31 miles of Millington checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 182 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Millington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Millington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Sandusky-memphis Metal CabinetsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SANDUSKY LEEToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- Church St. Exxon, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- City of MillingtonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Shelby Co Board Of EducationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Millington Bus LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- EDSAL SANDUSKYToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- USN NAVAL AIR STA MEMPHISBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- USN NAVAL AIR STA MEMPHISSuperfund · 0.5 mi
- Millington Telephone Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Quito QuikstopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Roland's Tire And Automotive CenteUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Millington'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 Millington.
Total Sites
473
within ~10 miles of Millington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Millington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Millington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Millington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Millington — PFAS (5 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Millington
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 Millington average
Your land is one point inside Millington
Everything above resolves to Millington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Millington Average
Millington Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Millington
- ●One soil character for all of Millington
- ●Frost dates read at Millington's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Millington's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Millington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Millington, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Millington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Millington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Millington average
How we know this about Millington
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 Millington’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 Millington
When does frost risk typically end in Millington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Millington typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Millington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Millington typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Millington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Millington sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 9, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Millington?
The federal record around Millington is a meaningful one — 473 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (286), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Millington?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Millington's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Millington'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 Millington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Millington's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 14,339 acres it covers and 473 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Millington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Millington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 23 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 473 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Millington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Millington's boundary and the 14,339 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Millington's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Millington checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Millington's 14,339 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 Millington's 14,339 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Millington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,339 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Millington-wide figureread your own land →