Puryear, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Puryear, 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 Puryear 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 Puryear — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Puryear — the short answer
Puryear, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 606 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 606 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 Puryear's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Puryear's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Puryear
Each reading below is measured for Puryear itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPuryear runs about 235 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
MeasuredPuryear 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 Puryear is in
Puryear sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Puryear's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Henry County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Puryear
Every plant below cleared Puryear's own zone 7b and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Puryear?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Puryear
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Puryear. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hy:O-014Nitrate · 1400 ft
- Puryear SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Jay Arbuda IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HY:O-012Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Puryear AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Jim's AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PURCHASE AREA LAND AND LIVESTOCKCAFO · 3.4 mi
- Shady Grove BBQ and MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- HY:O-013Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- K6D0010Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- City Of Hazel PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- SHREE Vinayak IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Puryear'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 Puryear.
Total Sites
222
within ~10 miles of Puryear
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Puryear
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Puryear
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Puryear, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Puryear — Nitrate (106 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Puryear
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 Puryear average
Your land is one point inside Puryear
Everything above resolves to Puryear as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 606 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 Puryear Average
Puryear Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Puryear
- ●One soil character for all of Puryear
- ●Frost dates read at Puryear's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Puryear's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Puryear
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Puryear, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Puryear averages can't show:
We read public map data around Puryear — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Puryear average
How we know this about Puryear
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 Puryear’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 Puryear
When does frost risk typically end in Puryear?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Puryear typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Puryear?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Puryear typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Puryear?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Puryear sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 30, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Puryear?
The federal record around Puryear is a meaningful one — 222 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (106), the nearest Nitrate 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 Puryear?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Puryear's scale — its 7b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Puryear'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 Puryear’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Puryear's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 606 acres it covers and 222 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Puryear's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Puryear's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 13 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 222 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Puryear, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Puryear's boundary and the 606 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Puryear sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Puryear's 606 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henry 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 Henry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Puryear's 606 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Puryear you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 606 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Puryear-wide figureread your own land →