Pigeon Forge, 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 Pigeon Forge, 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 Pigeon Forge 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 Pigeon Forge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pigeon Forge — the short answer
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Pigeon Forge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pigeon Forge's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pigeon Forge
Each reading below is measured for Pigeon Forge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPigeon Forge runs about 232 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
MeasuredPigeon Forge 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 Pigeon Forge is in
Pigeon Forge sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pigeon Forge's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Sevier County is mostly Blue Ridge. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pigeon Forge
Every plant below cleared Pigeon Forge's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pigeon Forge?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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.
Documented around Pigeon Forge
Survey cells within 31 miles of Pigeon Forge checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 53 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pigeon Forge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pigeon Forge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Adventure Raceway, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Sv:K-001Nitrate · 1100 ft
- Flyaway Indoor SkydivingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Kenjo #40Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ShoneysUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Spinnin And Grinnin IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Waterski Shows IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Wagon Wheel General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Unknown-our # 57-9657-184Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Family MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Ward-beal GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKETS #1515Brownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pigeon Forge'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 Pigeon Forge.
Total Sites
261
within ~10 miles of Pigeon Forge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pigeon Forge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pigeon Forge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pigeon Forge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pigeon Forge — PFAS (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (206 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Pigeon Forge
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 Pigeon Forge average
Your land is one point inside Pigeon Forge
Everything above resolves to Pigeon Forge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Pigeon Forge Average
Pigeon Forge Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Pigeon Forge
- ●One soil character for all of Pigeon Forge
- ●Frost dates read at Pigeon Forge's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pigeon Forge's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pigeon Forge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pigeon Forge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pigeon Forge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pigeon Forge average
How we know this about Pigeon Forge
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 Pigeon Forge’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 Pigeon Forge
When does frost risk typically end in Pigeon Forge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pigeon Forge typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Pigeon Forge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pigeon Forge typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pigeon Forge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pigeon Forge sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 26, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pigeon Forge?
The federal record around Pigeon Forge is a meaningful one — 261 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (206), 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 Pigeon Forge?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pigeon Forge's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pigeon Forge'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 Pigeon Forge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pigeon Forge's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,845 acres it covers and 261 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pigeon Forge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pigeon Forge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 9 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 261 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pigeon Forge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pigeon Forge's boundary and the 8,845 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pigeon Forge sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Pigeon Forge 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 Pigeon Forge's 8,845 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sevier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sevier 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 Sevier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pigeon Forge's 8,845 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pigeon Forge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,845 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 Pigeon Forge-wide figureread your own land →