Pelham, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Pelham, 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 Pelham 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 Pelham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pelham — the short answer
Pelham, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- 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
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 11K 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 Pelham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pelham's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pelham
Each reading below is measured for Pelham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPelham 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
MeasuredPelham 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 Pelham is in
Pelham sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pelham's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grundy County.
What Grows in Pelham
Every plant below cleared Pelham'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 Pelham?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (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 Pelham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pelham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Gy:E-011Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Space Age Gift Shop # 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HILLSVILLE UTILITY DISTRICTPFAS · 2.3 mi
- Grundy Farmers CoopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- BP MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Stuckey's of Pelham, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Pelham Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 4492 Pelham GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Gy:E-010Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- Oak Grove MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- David L. HillUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Pelham AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pelham'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 Pelham.
Total Sites
119
within ~10 miles of Pelham
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pelham
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pelham
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pelham, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pelham — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (89 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 Pelham
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 Pelham average
Your land is one point inside Pelham
Everything above resolves to Pelham as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Pelham Average
Pelham Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Pelham
- ●One soil character for all of Pelham
- ●Frost dates read at Pelham's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pelham's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pelham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pelham, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pelham averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pelham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pelham average
How we know this about Pelham
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 Pelham’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 Pelham
When does frost risk typically end in Pelham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pelham typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Pelham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pelham 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 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pelham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pelham sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 24, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pelham?
The federal record around Pelham is a meaningful one — 119 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Pelham?
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 Pelham's scale — its 7b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pelham'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 Pelham’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pelham's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,650 acres it covers and 119 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pelham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pelham's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 7 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 119 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pelham, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pelham's boundary and the 10,650 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pelham's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pelham's 10,650 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grundy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grundy 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 Grundy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pelham's 10,650 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pelham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,650 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Pelham-wide figureread your own land →