Ripley, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ripley, 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 Ripley 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 Ripley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ripley — the short answer
Ripley, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Ripley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ripley's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ripley
Each reading below is measured for Ripley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRipley runs about 252 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
MeasuredRipley 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 Ripley is in
Ripley sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ripley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lauderdale County.
What Grows in Ripley
Every plant below cleared Ripley's own zone 7b and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ripley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Ripley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ripley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Special Car RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Jeff Davis ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Chisholms 66 StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Bellsouth (83527)Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Lauderdale County JailUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Community Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Curtis GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- South Central- RplyntnjsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- City Of RipleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Durhams StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- J And R GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Bevis FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ripley'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 Ripley.
Total Sites
126
within ~10 miles of Ripley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ripley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ripley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ripley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ripley — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (11 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ripley
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 Ripley average
Your land is one point inside Ripley
Everything above resolves to Ripley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Ripley Average
Ripley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ripley
- ●One soil character for all of Ripley
- ●Frost dates read at Ripley's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ripley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ripley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ripley, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ripley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ripley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ripley average
How we know this about Ripley
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 Ripley’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 Ripley
When does frost risk typically end in Ripley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ripley typically lands around Mar 10, 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 Mar 31.
When is the first frost in Ripley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ripley typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ripley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ripley sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 3, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ripley?
The federal record around Ripley is a meaningful one — 126 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ripley?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ripley's scale — its 7b band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ripley'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 Ripley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ripley's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,237 acres it covers and 126 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ripley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ripley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 17 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 126 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ripley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ripley's boundary and the 8,237 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ripley's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ripley's 8,237 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lauderdale County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ripley's 8,237 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ripley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,237 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ripley-wide figureread your own land →