Ridgely, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Ridgely, 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 Ridgely 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 Ridgely — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ridgely — the short answer
Ridgely, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- 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 7b is Ridgely's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ridgely's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ridgely
Each reading below is measured for Ridgely itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRidgely runs about 255 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
MeasuredRidgely 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 Ridgely is in
Ridgely sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ridgely's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Ridgely
Every plant below cleared Ridgely's own zone 7b and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ridgely?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Ridgely
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ridgely. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lake County Hwy DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Ray's One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Ridgely Full ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Pat's Food ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Clark's GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Shell Hi Way Gas And Grocery IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Gratio Grocery*Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- John NaleUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Allen Sullivan FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Bobby G Walker FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Dan P LayUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Jesse LayUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ridgely'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 Ridgely.
Total Sites
78
within ~10 miles of Ridgely
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ridgely
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ridgely
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ridgely, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 65 sites within ~10 miles of Ridgely. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Ridgely
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 Ridgely average
Your land is one point inside Ridgely
Everything above resolves to Ridgely 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 Ridgely Average
Ridgely Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ridgely
- ●One soil character for all of Ridgely
- ●Frost dates read at Ridgely's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ridgely's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ridgely
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ridgely, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ridgely averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ridgely — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ridgely average
How we know this about Ridgely
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 Ridgely’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 Ridgely
When does frost risk typically end in Ridgely?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ridgely typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Ridgely?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ridgely typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ridgely?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ridgely sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 7, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ridgely?
The federal record around Ridgely shows 78 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Ridgely?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ridgely's scale — its 7b band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ridgely'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 Ridgely’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ridgely's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,270 acres it covers and 78 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ridgely's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ridgely's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 21 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 78 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ridgely, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ridgely's boundary and the 1,270 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ridgely's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ridgely's 1,270 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ridgely's 1,270 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ridgely you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,270 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 Ridgely-wide figureread your own land →
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