Pleasant Hill, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pleasant Hill, 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 Pleasant Hill 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 Pleasant Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pleasant Hill — the short answer
Pleasant Hill, Tennessee: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- 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 7a is Pleasant Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pleasant Hill's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pleasant Hill
Each reading below is measured for Pleasant Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPleasant Hill runs about 216 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
MeasuredPleasant Hill sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Pleasant Hill is in
Pleasant Hill sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pleasant Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cumberland County.
What Grows in Pleasant Hill
Every plant below cleared Pleasant Hill's own zone 7a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pleasant Hill?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Pleasant Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pleasant Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Village MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Pleasant Hill MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Wharton Nursing HomeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Cassville RadioUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Thomas Industries Inc-benjamin DUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Lomand Telephone BondecroftUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Hickory Specialties IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Mayland Market (harpers Market)Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- HICKORY SPECIALTIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 5.0 mi
- KERRYBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- ROYAL OAK CHARCOAL LLC -CROSSVILLE FURNACEToxics Release Inventory · 5.1 mi
- ROYAL OAK ENTERPRISES LLCToxics Release Inventory · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pleasant Hill'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 Pleasant Hill.
Total Sites
144
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Hill
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pleasant Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pleasant Hill — Underground Storage Tanks (116 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Pleasant Hill
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 Pleasant Hill average
Your land is one point inside Pleasant Hill
Everything above resolves to Pleasant Hill 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 Pleasant Hill Average
Pleasant Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pleasant Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Pleasant Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Pleasant Hill's scale: Mar 29 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pleasant Hill's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pleasant Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pleasant Hill, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pleasant Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pleasant Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pleasant Hill average
How we know this about Pleasant Hill
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 Pleasant Hill’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 Pleasant Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Pleasant Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Hill typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Pleasant Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Hill typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pleasant Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pleasant Hill sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 17, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pleasant Hill?
The federal record around Pleasant Hill shows 144 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (116), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pleasant Hill?
From about Oct 1 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 Oct 31 (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 Oct 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pleasant Hill's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pleasant Hill'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 Pleasant Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pleasant Hill's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,043 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pleasant Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pleasant Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Oct 31 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pleasant Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pleasant Hill's boundary and the 1,043 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pleasant Hill's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pleasant Hill's 1,043 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cumberland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cumberland 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 Cumberland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pleasant Hill's 1,043 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pleasant Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,043 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 Pleasant Hill-wide figureread your own land →