Norene, 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 Norene, 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 Norene 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 Norene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Norene — the short answer
Norene, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 Norene's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Norene's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Norene
Each reading below is measured for Norene itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorene runs about 223 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
MeasuredNorene 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 Norene is in
Norene sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Norene's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wilson County.
What Grows in Norene
Every plant below cleared Norene's own zone 7b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Norene?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 4 — 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 Norene
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Norene, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Norene
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Norene. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Norene General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- NoreneMining · 2.6 mi
- WI:G- 40 (352)Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- WI:G- 43 (353)Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- DYNO NOBELBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- Bairds MillMining · 4.4 mi
- Wi:G-021Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- L and C MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- RobinsonMining · 5.0 mi
- Cherry Valley MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- LEBANON WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 5.4 mi
- Deep Well-Sphalerite OccurrenceMining · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Norene'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 Norene.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Norene
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Norene
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Norene
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Norene, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Norene — Mining (12 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Norene
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 Norene average
Your land is one point inside Norene
Everything above resolves to Norene 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 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 Norene Average
Norene Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Norene
- ●One soil character for all of Norene
- ●Frost dates read at Norene's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Norene's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Norene
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Norene, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Norene averages can't show:
We read public map data around Norene — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Norene average
How we know this about Norene
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 Norene’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 Norene
When does frost risk typically end in Norene?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Norene 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 Norene?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Norene typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Norene?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Norene sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 21, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Norene?
The federal record around Norene is a meaningful one — 91 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Norene?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Norene's scale — its 7b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Norene'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 Norene’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Norene's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,094 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Norene's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Norene's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 4 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Norene, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Norene's boundary and the 1,094 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Norene's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Norenelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Norene's 1,094 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wilson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wilson 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 Wilson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Norene's 1,094 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Norene you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,094 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Norene-wide figureread your own land →
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