Rockwood, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rockwood, 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 Rockwood 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 Rockwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rockwood — the short answer
Rockwood, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- 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
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Rockwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rockwood's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rockwood
Each reading below is measured for Rockwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRockwood runs about 229 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
MeasuredRockwood 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 Rockwood is in
Rockwood sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rockwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Roane County.
What Grows in Rockwood
Every plant below cleared Rockwood's own zone 7b and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rockwood?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (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. 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 Rockwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rockwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- North Gateway GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ALBAHEALTH LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- Kayser-roth Hosiery IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BOWMAN BROTHERS, INC.Brownfields · 1900 ft
- Big E Quickmart RockwoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Chuck's Auto TrimUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- PLANET, INC.Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE #938Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- Melvin L ChandlerUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Harveys Country StrUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Pond Grove School-mid-eastUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- East-west Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rockwood'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 Rockwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rockwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rockwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rockwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rockwood — Superfund (7 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Rockwood
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 Rockwood average
Your land is one point inside Rockwood
Everything above resolves to Rockwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Rockwood Average
Rockwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Rockwood
- ●One soil character for all of Rockwood
- ●Frost dates read at Rockwood's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rockwood's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rockwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rockwood, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rockwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rockwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rockwood average
How we know this about Rockwood
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 Rockwood’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 Rockwood
When does frost risk typically end in Rockwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rockwood typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Rockwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rockwood 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 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rockwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rockwood sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 26, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rockwood?
The federal record around Rockwood is a meaningful one — 209 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (159), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Rockwood?
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 Rockwood's scale — its 7b band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rockwood'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 Rockwood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rockwood's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,130 acres it covers and 209 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rockwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rockwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 9 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 209 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rockwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rockwood's boundary and the 5,130 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rockwood's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rockwood's 5,130 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Roane County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Roane 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 Roane County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rockwood's 5,130 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rockwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,130 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 Rockwood-wide figureread your own land →
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