Morrison, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Morrison, 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 Morrison 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 Morrison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Morrison — the short answer
Morrison, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- 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 Morrison's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morrison's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Morrison
Each reading below is measured for Morrison itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMorrison runs about 226 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
MeasuredMorrison 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 Morrison is in
Morrison sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Morrison's own centroid rather than borrowed from Warren County.
What Grows in Morrison
Every plant below cleared Morrison's own zone 7b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Morrison?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Morrison
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Morrison. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER CARRIER MCMINNVILLEBrownfields · 1900 ft
- FORMER CARRIER MCMINNVILLEToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- Morrison MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Serve N Go no. 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CARRIER CORPORATION- FMR GRISWOLD ROAD DUMPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Joe Harvey/united Technologies CUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Jacksboro VillageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Billy Joe YoungbloodUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Johnson's ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Whitlock GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WEST WARREN-VIOLA U. D.PFAS · 1.1 mi
- Morrison ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morrison'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 Morrison.
Total Sites
155
within ~10 miles of Morrison
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Morrison
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Morrison
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morrison, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Morrison — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (127 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Morrison
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 Morrison average
Your land is one point inside Morrison
Everything above resolves to Morrison 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 Morrison Average
Morrison Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Morrison
- ●One soil character for all of Morrison
- ●Frost dates read at Morrison's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morrison's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Morrison
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morrison, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morrison averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morrison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morrison average
How we know this about Morrison
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 Morrison’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 Morrison
When does frost risk typically end in Morrison?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morrison typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Morrison?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Morrison typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Morrison?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morrison sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 24, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morrison?
The federal record around Morrison shows 155 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (127), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Morrison?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Morrison's scale — its 7b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morrison'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 Morrison’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Morrison's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,913 acres it covers and 155 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morrison's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morrison's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 7 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 155 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Morrison, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Morrison's boundary and the 1,913 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Morrison's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Morrison's 1,913 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warren 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 Warren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morrison's 1,913 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Morrison you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,913 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Morrison-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Wider growing context
What grows across TennesseeMorrison sits outside our named growing regions, so Tennessee as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides