Winchester, 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.
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 Winchester, 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 Winchester 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 Winchester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Winchester — the short answer
Winchester, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Winchester's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winchester's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winchester
Each reading below is measured for Winchester itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWinchester runs about 233 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
MeasuredWinchester 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 Winchester is in
Winchester sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Winchester's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Winchester
Every plant below cleared Winchester's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winchester?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Winchester
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winchester. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Chally WallyUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- F And K AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Rebel Conv StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- VENTURE BOATS INCToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- M and J MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Winchester Water SystemUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Winchester Jiffy StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- E-Z Stop MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- B And H ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Williams GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Jackson's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winchester'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 Winchester.
Total Sites
180
within ~10 miles of Winchester
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Winchester
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winchester
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winchester, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Winchester — PFAS (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (126 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Winchester
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 Winchester average
Your land is one point inside Winchester
Everything above resolves to Winchester as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 city 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 Winchester Average
Winchester Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Winchester
- ●One soil character for all of Winchester
- ●Frost dates read at Winchester's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winchester's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winchester
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winchester, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winchester averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winchester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winchester average
How we know this about Winchester
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Winchester’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Winchester
When does frost risk typically end in Winchester?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winchester typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Winchester?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winchester typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winchester?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winchester sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 26, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winchester?
The federal record around Winchester shows 180 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (126), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Winchester?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Winchester's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winchester'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 Winchester’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Winchester's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,255 acres it covers and 180 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winchester's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Winchester's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 9 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 180 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winchester, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winchester's boundary and the 7,255 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Winchester's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Winchester's 7,255 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 Winchester's 7,255 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winchester you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,255 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Winchester-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Wider growing context
What grows across TennesseeWinchester sits outside our named growing regions, so Tennessee as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides