Rutherford, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rutherford, 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 Rutherford 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 Rutherford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rutherford — the short answer
Rutherford, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- 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 Rutherford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rutherford's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rutherford
Each reading below is measured for Rutherford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRutherford runs about 232 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
MeasuredRutherford 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 Rutherford is in
Rutherford sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rutherford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gibson County.
What Grows in Rutherford
Every plant below cleared Rutherford's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rutherford?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Rutherford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rutherford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rutherford AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Little General #32Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Rutherford Police DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Williams Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Lloyd FryburgerUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GB:R-001Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- City Of RutherfordUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Northside Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- John S SimsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WIS-CON, TOTAL POWERToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- WIS-CON, TOTAL POWERBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- Mcewen Bro EnterprisesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rutherford'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 Rutherford.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Rutherford
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rutherford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rutherford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rutherford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rutherford — Underground Storage Tanks (63 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites). 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.
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 Rutherford
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 Rutherford average
Your land is one point inside Rutherford
Everything above resolves to Rutherford 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 Rutherford Average
Rutherford Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Rutherford
- ●One soil character for all of Rutherford
- ●Frost dates read at Rutherford's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rutherford's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rutherford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rutherford, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rutherford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rutherford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rutherford average
How we know this about Rutherford
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 Rutherford’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 Rutherford
When does frost risk typically end in Rutherford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rutherford typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Rutherford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rutherford typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rutherford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rutherford sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 25, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rutherford?
The federal record around Rutherford is a meaningful one — 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), 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 Rutherford?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rutherford's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rutherford'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 Rutherford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rutherford's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,474 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rutherford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rutherford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 8 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rutherford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rutherford's boundary and the 1,474 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rutherford'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 Rutherford's 1,474 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gibson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gibson 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 Gibson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rutherford's 1,474 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rutherford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,474 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 Rutherford-wide figureread your own land →