Orebank, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Orebank, 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 Orebank 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 Orebank — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Orebank — the short answer
Orebank, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 564 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- 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
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 564 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 Orebank's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orebank's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orebank
Each reading below is measured for Orebank itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrebank runs about 221 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
MeasuredOrebank 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 Orebank is in
Orebank sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Orebank's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sullivan County.
What Grows in Orebank
Every plant below cleared Orebank's own zone 7b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orebank?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Orebank
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Orebank, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Orebank
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orebank. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rich OsborneUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- QUALITY MOTORS & BODY WORKS LLCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- BILL MCCONNELL AUTO PAINTING & BODY WORKBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Family Food MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Midway GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Tri-city's Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Consolidated FreightwaysUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- General Shale BrickUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Super Hwy MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Greenwood MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ALLEY S DODGE JAGUAR AND SAABBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Kingsport TransmissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orebank'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 Orebank.
Total Sites
571
within ~10 miles of Orebank
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orebank
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orebank
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orebank, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 442 sites within ~10 miles of Orebank. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Orebank
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 Orebank average
Your land is one point inside Orebank
Everything above resolves to Orebank as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 564 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 Orebank Average
Orebank Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Orebank
- ●One soil character for all of Orebank
- ●Frost dates read at Orebank's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orebank's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orebank
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orebank, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orebank averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orebank — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orebank average
How we know this about Orebank
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 Orebank’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 Orebank
When does frost risk typically end in Orebank?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orebank typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Orebank?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orebank 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 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orebank?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orebank sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 21, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orebank?
The federal record around Orebank is a meaningful one — 571 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (442), 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 Orebank?
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 Orebank's scale — its 7b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orebank'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 Orebank’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Orebank's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 564 acres it covers and 571 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orebank's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orebank's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 4 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 571 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orebank, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orebank's boundary and the 564 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Orebank's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Orebanklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Orebank's 564 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sullivan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sullivan 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 Sullivan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Orebank's 564 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orebank you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 564 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 Orebank-wide figureread your own land →
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