Georgia spans USDA hardiness zones 7a-9b, with a growing season of about 275 frost-free days — growing weather most of the year, with mild winters opening seasons colder regions never see.
What the season actually delivers comes down to 45-55 inches of annual rainfall, a median of roughly 5,616 growing-degree days (base 50°F), and about 1,015 winter chill hours for tree fruit. On the soil map, red clay (Piedmont), sandy loam (Coastal Plain), alluvial, and mountain loam dominate — and drainage is the trait that separates an easy bed from a project. What grows in Georgia depends on where in it you stand — Appalachia, Piedmont, and Blue Ridge each run on their own zones and frost timing. Among the crops suited to this profile: peach, vidalia onion, pecan, and tomato. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded inUSDA PHZM•NOAA Climate Normals•USDA NRCS SSURGO•GDD (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•Chill hours (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•USDA hardiness sub-region map•EPA FRS•USDA PLANTS•Growable Ground suitability scoring
Georgia spans zones 7a-9b, but your yard sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Georgia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Distinct growing regions within Georgia — each has its own zones, soils, and signature crops.
Georgia: USDA zones 7a-9b, 204–305 frost-free days depending on the county, 159 counties.
The middle half of this state’s counties. Tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks past the last hard freeze. The shortest-season figure is Georgia's own county record — Towns County's measured 28°F normal, not a modeled floor.
Zone 7a-9b is Georgia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Georgia's 275-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One answer for Georgia averages 159 counties whose growing seasons are 101 days apart — from 204 frost-free days in Towns County to 305 in Colquitt County. That is the same state, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your county sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 159 counties runs 259–290 days, with a median of 275 days — a 101-day span end to end.
Measured across 159 counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze. A county with no record of its own is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the state. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
The middle half of Georgia runs 259–290 frost-free days, and 76 of its 159 counties sit outside that — 38 on the short side, 38 on the long. A statewide planting date describes the middle well and the ends poorly, which is worth knowing before you follow one.
Under 259 frost-free days
38 counties
3 of 38 shown
The end of the state that sets the planting calendar — start seed indoors here and the season stretches to meet the crop.
259–290 frost-free days
83 counties
0 of 83 shown
The middle half of the state, and the part a single statewide date describes well.
Over 290 frost-free days
38 counties
3 of 38 shown
Long enough for a second succession of a quick crop after the first comes out.
Each county is placed by its own 28°F frost-free normal (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze), the same figure its own guide page publishes. Elevation, slope and cold-air drainage move a yard within its county as well — which is the part only your address resolves.
The soil types that dominate Georgia — how each drains decides more about crop success than almost anything else. Tap any soil to learn what it is and how to work with it. Each photo is a representative profile of that soil type; the named series is where it was documented, which is often another state.
Drainage
Slow. Red clay seals under pounding rain and sheds water across the surface, then holds tight to what soaks in.
What thrives
Okra, southern peas, sweet potatoes, and muscadines are traditional red-clay performers, and many fruit trees root deep into it once through the first year. Azaleas and blueberries appreciate its typical acidity.
Drainage
Fast. The sand fraction opens the soil up, so water moves through the root zone quickly and the surface rarely stays soggy. The trade is that nutrients ride out with the water.
What thrives
Root crops love it — carrots, potatoes, radishes, and onions size up cleanly in ground they can push through. Melons, sweet potatoes, asparagus, and most herbs appreciate the warmth and the drainage.
Drainage
Usually good: rivers sort their loads, and most alluvial soils have enough sand and silt to move water while holding plenty for roots. Low-lying pockets can run wet.
What thrives
Nearly everything — vegetables, orchards, vines, and berries all prosper on alluvium. Its depth lets roots go as far down as they care to.
Loam formed on mountain slopes and valleys — usually shallower than lowland soils, mixed with rock weathered from the peaks above, and highly variable from one bench to the next.
Drainage
Usually good to fast, because slopes shed water and the rock fraction keeps the profile open. South-facing ground dries markedly faster than north-facing.
What thrives
Cool-season vegetables, berries, and hardy perennials suited to the elevation. Short seasons matter more than the soil here — choose varieties bred for quick maturity.
Soil data: USDA NRCS SSURGO · Soil types explained
Plants well-suited to Georgia's climate, soils, and growing season — each links to its full growing profile.
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Across Georgia, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Feb 27, with the middle half of counties between Feb 17 and Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Nov 24 and Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
The plants Georgia put its name on — cultural emblems, not growing recommendations.
Cherokee rose
Rosa laevigata
Designated 1916.
Quercus virginiana
Designated 1937. In our plant library — see its full growing profile.
Vidalia sweet onion
Designated 1990.
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in Georgia — a real per-state range, not just a zone match. Ordered by how closely each plant’s published hardiness range matches Georgia’s zones 7a-9b, so this is a shortlist by climate fit, not a ranking of which plants matter most here. Presence is statewide, so a plant may still be uncommon in your specific county; your state’s Cooperative Extension or a native-plant society is the local authority.
US-native plants whose hardiness range overlaps Georgia’s USDA zones 7a-9b but which USDA PLANTS doesn’t map to a single state range here. Zone overlap is a starting filter, not a range map.
What an experienced grower plans around here — each one has a move.
Heavy red Piedmont clay is difficult to work and drains poorly
Compost and patience open red clay up — or a raised bed gets you growing today while the ground improves underneath.
High humidity drives fungal diseases in summer
Morning watering at the base, generous spacing, and resistant varieties — the humid-South disease playbook, straight from your extension.
Fire ants are a persistent pest in gardens across the state
Bait mounds early in the season and keep bed edges mulched — your extension office runs the current two-step control program.
Summer heat (90-100F) can stress cool-season crops by May
Run cool-season crops in the fall-through-spring windows and let summer belong to the heat-lovers.
For cultivar selection, pest pressure, and planting-time guidance specific to Georgia, the UGA Cooperative Extension is the authoritative local source.
Safe to Grow Here?What the federal record shows across Georgia — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Georgia — 37,000 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 521 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Georgia carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Severity Distribution
across Georgia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Georgia, two things run higher than the national average across Georgia — Superfund (521 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (24,572 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Everything above resolves to Georgia as a whole — a state whose own counties record seasons 101 days apart, and hardiness across zones 7a-9b. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 state 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 statewide average.
State averages sketch the shape. Your soil, sun exposure, drainage, and microclimate decide what actually takes. Pull a site-specific report for your exact parcel.
Enter your address. We read your soil, sun, drainage, and frost dates, then score 1,086 plants against the real conditions on your land.
Three things about your lot that Georgia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Georgia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Georgia average
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read per county and aggregated to the state band; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each county’s own record; rainfall from NOAA Climate Normals; soils from USDA NRCS SSURGO; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above. Where a county carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Georgia spans USDA hardiness zones 7a-9b — which is to say winter's coldest night runs from about 0°F to 30°F depending where in Georgia you are, averaged over 1991–2020 (USDA PHZM 2023).
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Across Georgia, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Feb 27, with the middle half of counties between Feb 17 and Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Nov 24 and Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Across Georgia, the middle half of counties see their last hard freeze (28°F) between about Feb 17 and Mar 10, with a county median near Feb 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). 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 Mar 20.
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, growing seasons across Georgia's counties mostly run about 259 to 290 days, with a county median near 275 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender crops get a somewhat shorter practical window, since lighter frosts reach a few weeks past the hard-freeze dates on both ends.
Georgia's zones 7a-9b support a wide range — strong performers include Peach, Vidalia Onion, Pecan, Tomato, and Blueberry. What actually takes on any one site comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage, and we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
Officially, Georgia spans USDA zones 7a-9b (USDA PHZM 2023) — but a zone is a 30-year average of winter's coldest night across an area, and it can't see any one yard. A south-facing slope, a tree line, or a low frost pocket can shift a single site by half a zone either way, which is why neighboring gardeners often quote different numbers. We read the conditions at your exact address — soil, sun, slope, and frost — and score 1,086 plants against what's actually there.
The federal record across Georgia runs heavier than most — 37,000 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (24,572) — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Start with three facts. Georgia spans USDA zones 7a-9b, which sets what survives winter; last hard freezes range from about Feb 17 to Mar 10 across its counties (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and 37,000 documented sites sit on the federal record here, so a soil test before food beds is the smart first step. From there, matching plants to your actual soil and sun is the fun part.
Everything above is measured at Georgia's scale — its 7a-9b band and its 275-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Georgia's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
6 of the readings below were taken at Georgia's own scale — the full zone 7a-9b span inside its borders, the 4 soil types that dominate its ground and 37,000 documented sites on its federal record; anything it cannot resolve at this scale is named below.
Measured here
What this page can’t tell you
Explore growing conditions by county — each has its own zone range and land area.
Explore growing conditions by city or town in Georgia.
