Summertown, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Summertown, 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 Summertown 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 Summertown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Summertown — the short answer
Summertown, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- 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 Summertown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Summertown's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Summertown
Each reading below is measured for Summertown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSummertown runs about 236 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
MeasuredSummertown 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 Summertown is in
Summertown sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Summertown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lawrence County.
What Grows in Summertown
Every plant below cleared Summertown's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Summertown?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Summertown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Summertown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lil Momma Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Farm Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Matheny's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Fred WarrenUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Hunt's MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Farm S/sUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SUMMERTOWN WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 1.5 mi
- Debbies Mini-MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Airport MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- By Pass MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Arch PruittUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- OLD SOUTH WOOD PRESERVING, INC.Brownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Summertown'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 Summertown.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Summertown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Summertown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Summertown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Summertown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Summertown — Superfund (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (84 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Summertown
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 Summertown average
Your land is one point inside Summertown
Everything above resolves to Summertown 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 Summertown Average
Summertown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Summertown
- ●One soil character for all of Summertown
- ●Frost dates read at Summertown's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Summertown's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Summertown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Summertown, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Summertown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Summertown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Summertown average
How we know this about Summertown
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 Summertown’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 Summertown
When does frost risk typically end in Summertown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Summertown typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Summertown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Summertown typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Summertown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Summertown sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 27, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Summertown?
The federal record around Summertown is a meaningful one — 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Summertown?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Summertown's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Summertown'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 Summertown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Summertown's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,287 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Summertown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Summertown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 10 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Summertown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Summertown's boundary and the 1,287 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Summertown's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Summertown's 1,287 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Summertown's 1,287 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Summertown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,287 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 Summertown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Wider growing context
What grows across TennesseeSummertown sits outside our named growing regions, so Tennessee as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides