Sewanee, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Sewanee, 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 Sewanee 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 Sewanee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sewanee — the short answer
Sewanee, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Sewanee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sewanee's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sewanee
Each reading below is measured for Sewanee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSewanee runs about 234 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
MeasuredSewanee 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 Sewanee is in
Sewanee sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sewanee's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Franklin County is mostly Interior Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Sewanee
Every plant below cleared Sewanee's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sewanee?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Sewanee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sewanee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Sewanee Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTHBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Golf And Tennis ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- University Auto CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Emerald-hodgson HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Sewanee Fire TowerUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- University of the South-Physical Plant WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Mid-way MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Henco IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SEWANEE UTILITY DISTRICTPFAS · 1.0 mi
- Sewanee Franklin County AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- St Andrews SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sewanee'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 Sewanee.
Total Sites
121
within ~10 miles of Sewanee
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sewanee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sewanee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sewanee, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of Sewanee. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Sewanee
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 Sewanee average
Your land is one point inside Sewanee
Everything above resolves to Sewanee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Sewanee Average
Sewanee Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Sewanee
- ●One soil character for all of Sewanee
- ●Frost dates read at Sewanee's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sewanee's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sewanee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sewanee, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sewanee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sewanee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sewanee average
How we know this about Sewanee
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 Sewanee’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 Sewanee
When does frost risk typically end in Sewanee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sewanee typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Sewanee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sewanee typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sewanee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sewanee sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 28, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sewanee?
The federal record around Sewanee shows 121 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Sewanee?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sewanee's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sewanee'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 Sewanee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sewanee's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,487 acres it covers and 121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sewanee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sewanee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 11 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sewanee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sewanee's boundary and the 2,487 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sewanee sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sewanee's 2,487 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sewanee's 2,487 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sewanee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,487 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Sewanee-wide figureread your own land →