Newport, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Newport, 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 Newport 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 Newport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Newport — the short answer
Newport, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Newport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Newport's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Newport
Each reading below is measured for Newport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNewport runs about 227 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
MeasuredNewport 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 Newport is in
Newport sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Newport's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cocke County is mostly Blue Ridge. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Newport
Every plant below cleared Newport's own zone 7b and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Newport?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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.
Documented around Newport
Survey cells within 31 miles of Newport checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 43 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Newport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Newport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pit Stop Mobil MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #7246Brownfields · 850 ft
- Cocke Co. High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Hill Paving CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Stop N Go MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- South Central NwpttnmtUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Mapco Express #1134Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Bob's ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Newport City Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- East Tennessee Tire And Retread Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Branum Electric Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Copeland PropertiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Newport'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 Newport.
Total Sites
200
within ~10 miles of Newport
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Newport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Newport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Newport, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Newport — Underground Storage Tanks (155 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Newport
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 Newport average
Your land is one point inside Newport
Everything above resolves to Newport 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 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 Newport Average
Newport Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Newport
- ●One soil character for all of Newport
- ●Frost dates read at Newport's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Newport's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Newport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Newport, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Newport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Newport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Newport average
How we know this about Newport
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 Newport’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 Newport
When does frost risk typically end in Newport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Newport typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Newport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Newport typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Newport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Newport sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 23, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Newport?
The federal record around Newport is a meaningful one — 200 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (155), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Newport?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Newport's scale — its 7b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Newport'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 Newport’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Newport's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,541 acres it covers and 200 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Newport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Newport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 6 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 200 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Newport, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Newport's boundary and the 3,541 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Newport sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Newport 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 Newport's 3,541 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cocke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cocke 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 Cocke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Newport's 3,541 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Newport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,541 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 Newport-wide figureread your own land →
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