Georgetown, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Georgetown, 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 Georgetown 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 Georgetown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Georgetown — the short answer
Georgetown, California: USDA zone 9a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- El Dorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- El Dorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- El Dorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 10K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are El Dorado County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Georgetown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Georgetown's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Georgetown
Each reading below is measured for Georgetown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGeorgetown runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from El Dorado County, the closest normal to Georgetown) — 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
MeasuredGeorgetown sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Georgetown is in
Georgetown sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Georgetown's own centroid rather than borrowed from El Dorado County.
What Grows in Georgetown
Every plant below cleared Georgetown's own zone 9a and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Georgetown?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Georgetown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Georgetown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GEORGETOWN DIVIDE PUBLIC UTILTY DISTRICTBrownfields · 200 ft
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 750 ft
- BLACK OAK MINE USDBrownfields · 1000 ft
- BLACKSHEEP OFFROAD AND AUTOMOTIVE REPAIRBrownfields · 1800 ft
- GEORGETOWN FIRE DISTRICTBrownfields · 1800 ft
- ALL CYCLESBrownfields · 2600 ft
- EL DORADO COUNTY-ENVIRO MANAGEMENTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ROBINSON PETROLEUM GEORGETOWN/GAS & GOBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ROBINSON PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- EL DORADO COUNTY / DEPT OF ENVIRON MGMNTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- KIEWIT INFRASTRUCTURE WEST COBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- GEORGETOWN PRE-CAST, INC.Brownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Georgetown'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 Georgetown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Georgetown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Georgetown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Georgetown, Mining runs higher than the national average — 113 sites within ~10 miles of Georgetown. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Georgetown
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 Georgetown average
Your land is one point inside Georgetown
Everything above resolves to Georgetown as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from El Dorado County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Georgetown Average
Georgetown Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Georgetown
- ●One soil character for all of Georgetown
- ●Frost dates read at Georgetown's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Georgetown's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Georgetown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Georgetown, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Georgetown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Georgetown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Georgetown average
How we know this about Georgetown
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 El Dorado County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Georgetown
When does frost risk typically end in Georgetown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Georgetown typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Georgetown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Georgetown typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Georgetown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Georgetown sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 15, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Georgetown?
The federal record around Georgetown is a meaningful one — 198 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (113), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Georgetown?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Georgetown's scale — its 9a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Georgetown'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 Georgetown’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Georgetown's own scale — the 9,682 acres it covers and 198 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Georgetown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 198 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Georgetown, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Georgetown's boundary and the 9,682 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Georgetown's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Georgetown has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom El Dorado County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Georgetown's 9,682 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom El Dorado County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom El Dorado County
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom El Dorado County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Georgetown's 9,682 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Georgetown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,682 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Georgetown-wide figureread your own land →