The Best Onion Varieties for Tennessee
Nashville sits at 36.12 degrees north, and on the longest day of the year its sky holds 14 hours and 28 minutes of daylight.
Gardening in Tennessee
Everything we have worked out for Tennessee: what to plant and when, which varieties finish in time, the pests that actually turn up here, and the jobs that pay off month by month. We also cover the rest of the property, from lawns and soil to home care and energy, because a garden rarely stops at the vegetable bed.
The numbers first, because everything else follows from them. Measured at the weather station in Nashville, the last spring freeze runs March 31 to April 12 and the first fall freeze runs October 28 to November 8, USDA zones 5b-8a, 4,937 growing degree days in the year.
Garlic does well: 21.8 weeks below 40 °F, comfortably past the six it needs to form a proper head.
Elsewhere on the property in Tennessee: the pests that turn up here.
Figures from NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals. A state is not one climate: elevation, a large lake or the coast can move these dates by two weeks either way, so check your own county with the extension service before you spend money.
Forcing Spring Bulbs Indoors in Tennessee
Forcing spring bulbs indoors means tricking a bulb into believing it already lived through winter, then bringing it into a warm room to bloom weeks…
Growing Spring Bulbs in Containers in Tennessee
Container-grown spring bulbs need one thing potted bulbs in the ground don’t: real protection from a pot that freezes clean through.
The Tennessee Apple Calendar, Stage by Stage
A stage-by-stage Tennessee apple calendar built on NOAA frost data, showing when dormancy, bloom, and harvest actually happen.
Planting Spring Bulbs in Tennessee: What Will Come Back, and What Will Not
Middle Tennessee winters get cold enough, reliably, to satisfy the chill requirement of nearly every classic spring bulb: tulips, daffodils, hyacinths…
Canning at Altitude in Tennessee: What Your Elevation Changes
Nashville sits at 558 feet, where water boils somewhere between 208°F and 212°F depending on the day’s weather.
Firewood in Tennessee: Which Woods Your Winter Actually Needs
Winter here isn’t brutal, but it’s real enough to matter. Nashville’s coldest month bottoms out at an average low of 30.1°F, cold enough that a woodstove…
Watering a Garden in Tennessee: How Much, How Often, and the Local Rules
Tennessee gardens live and die by heat, not by drought maps. With 40 days a year hitting 90F or higher and a growing season that starts as early as March…
Tennessee Soil: What You Are Digging Into, and How to Improve It
Dig a spade into ground almost anywhere in the state and there’s a good chance you’re standing on some version of the Dickson series, the soil USDA has…
Tennessee Planting Calendar: When to Sow and Plant, Frost Dates Included
A county-by-county guide to Tennessee’s frost dates, cool- and warm-season planting windows, and fall sowing math, based on NOAA climate normals and UT Extension resources.