South Cleveland, 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.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in South Cleveland, 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 South Cleveland 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 South Cleveland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Cleveland — the short answer
South Cleveland, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 South Cleveland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Cleveland's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Cleveland
Each reading below is measured for South Cleveland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Cleveland runs about 240 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
MeasuredSouth Cleveland 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 South Cleveland is in
South Cleveland sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at South Cleveland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bradley County.
What Grows in South Cleveland
Every plant below cleared South Cleveland's own zone 7b and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Cleveland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around South Cleveland
Survey cells within 31 miles of South Cleveland checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 111 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near South Cleveland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Cleveland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hardwick Lead MineMining · 0.6 mi
- AALBERTS SURFACE TREATMENT CORPBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MUELLER CO. - CLEVELANDBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MUELLER CO. - CLEVELANDToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- FirstfleetUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- UPS, CLEVELANDBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Waste ConnectionsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- OMNICARE OF TENNESSEEBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Favorite Market #63Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- POLARTEC TENNESSEE MANUFACTURING, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- POLARTEC TENNESSEE MANUFACTURING, LLCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Southeastern Farmers CoopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Cleveland'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 South Cleveland.
Total Sites
407
within ~10 miles of South Cleveland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Cleveland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Cleveland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Cleveland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of South Cleveland — Toxics Release Inventory (37 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (286 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in South Cleveland
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 South Cleveland average
Your land is one point inside South Cleveland
Everything above resolves to South Cleveland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 South Cleveland Average
South Cleveland Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across South Cleveland
- ●One soil character for all of South Cleveland
- ●Frost dates read at South Cleveland's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Cleveland's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Cleveland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Cleveland, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Cleveland averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Cleveland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Cleveland average
How we know this about South Cleveland
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 South Cleveland’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 South Cleveland
When does frost risk typically end in South Cleveland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Cleveland typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in South Cleveland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Cleveland typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Cleveland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Cleveland sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 30, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Cleveland?
The federal record around South Cleveland is a meaningful one — 407 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (286), the nearest Mining record about 0.6 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 South Cleveland?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Cleveland's scale — its 7b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Cleveland'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 South Cleveland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at South Cleveland's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,002 acres it covers and 407 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Cleveland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Cleveland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 13 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 407 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Cleveland, the closest Mining record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Cleveland's boundary and the 9,002 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Cleveland's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around South Cleveland checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Cleveland's 9,002 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bradley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bradley 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 Bradley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Cleveland's 9,002 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Cleveland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,002 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.6 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 South Cleveland-wide figureread your own land →
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