Sullivan Gardens, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sullivan Gardens, 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 Sullivan Gardens 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 Sullivan Gardens — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sullivan Gardens — the short answer
Sullivan Gardens, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- 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 Sullivan Gardens's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sullivan Gardens's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sullivan Gardens
Each reading below is measured for Sullivan Gardens itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSullivan Gardens runs about 222 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
MeasuredSullivan Gardens 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 Sullivan Gardens is in
Sullivan Gardens sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sullivan Gardens's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sullivan County.
What Grows in Sullivan Gardens
Every plant below cleared Sullivan Gardens's own zone 7b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sullivan Gardens?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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.
Documented around Sullivan Gardens
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Sullivan Gardens, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sullivan Gardens
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sullivan Gardens. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Blackberry StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Mrs Phyllis BurgessUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Dytran Service Inc #3802Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Cherokee Food Store #19Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Don Chase - Sullivan ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TOTAL CLEAN, LLCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- ETNG, KINGSPORT SOUTH M & R 59051Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- J L FinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BOASSO CLEAN INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Mill Crk GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Sullivan County Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Superior Carriers IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sullivan Gardens'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 Sullivan Gardens.
Total Sites
522
within ~10 miles of Sullivan Gardens
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sullivan Gardens
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sullivan Gardens
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sullivan Gardens, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 398 sites within ~10 miles of Sullivan Gardens. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Sullivan Gardens
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 Sullivan Gardens average
Your land is one point inside Sullivan Gardens
Everything above resolves to Sullivan Gardens 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 Sullivan Gardens Average
Sullivan Gardens Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Sullivan Gardens
- ●One soil character for all of Sullivan Gardens
- ●Frost dates read at Sullivan Gardens's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sullivan Gardens's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sullivan Gardens
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sullivan Gardens, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sullivan Gardens averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sullivan Gardens — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sullivan Gardens average
How we know this about Sullivan Gardens
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 Sullivan Gardens’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 Sullivan Gardens
When does frost risk typically end in Sullivan Gardens?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sullivan Gardens typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Sullivan Gardens?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sullivan Gardens typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sullivan Gardens?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sullivan Gardens sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 21, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sullivan Gardens?
The federal record around Sullivan Gardens is a meaningful one — 522 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (398), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Sullivan Gardens?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sullivan Gardens's scale — its 7b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sullivan Gardens'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 Sullivan Gardens’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sullivan Gardens's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,597 acres it covers and 522 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sullivan Gardens's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sullivan Gardens's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 4 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 522 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sullivan Gardens, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sullivan Gardens's boundary and the 1,597 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sullivan Gardens's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Sullivan Gardenslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sullivan Gardens's 1,597 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 Sullivan Gardens's 1,597 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sullivan Gardens you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,597 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Sullivan Gardens-wide figureread your own land →
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