Spurgeon, 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 Spurgeon, 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 Spurgeon 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 Spurgeon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spurgeon — the short answer
Spurgeon, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Spurgeon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spurgeon's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spurgeon
Each reading below is measured for Spurgeon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpurgeon runs about 219 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
MeasuredSpurgeon 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 Spurgeon is in
Spurgeon sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spurgeon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sullivan County.
What Grows in Spurgeon
Every plant below cleared Spurgeon's own zone 7b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spurgeon?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Spurgeon
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from Spurgeon, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Spurgeon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spurgeon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Roadrunner Market #171Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Don Gray Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Apple Shed MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Roadrunner Market #118Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Cherokee Food Store #16Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Mrs Lois DixonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Boone MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TVA - BOONE HYDROBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- TVA - BOONE HYDROToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- Gage's Market And Bait ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Appco No. 20Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Boones Creek ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spurgeon'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 Spurgeon.
Total Sites
658
within ~10 miles of Spurgeon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spurgeon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spurgeon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spurgeon, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 484 sites within ~10 miles of Spurgeon. 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 Spurgeon
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 Spurgeon average
Your land is one point inside Spurgeon
Everything above resolves to Spurgeon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Spurgeon Average
Spurgeon Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Spurgeon
- ●One soil character for all of Spurgeon
- ●Frost dates read at Spurgeon's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spurgeon's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spurgeon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spurgeon, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spurgeon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spurgeon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spurgeon average
How we know this about Spurgeon
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 Spurgeon’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 Spurgeon
When does frost risk typically end in Spurgeon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spurgeon typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Spurgeon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spurgeon typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spurgeon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spurgeon sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 19, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spurgeon?
The federal record around Spurgeon is a meaningful one — 658 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (484), 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 Spurgeon?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spurgeon's scale — its 7b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spurgeon'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 Spurgeon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Spurgeon's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,616 acres it covers and 658 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spurgeon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spurgeon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 2 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 658 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spurgeon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spurgeon's boundary and the 2,616 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spurgeon's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Spurgeonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spurgeon's 2,616 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sullivan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sullivan 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 Sullivan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spurgeon's 2,616 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spurgeon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,616 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 Spurgeon-wide figureread your own land →
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