Acworth, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Acworth, 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 Acworth 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 Acworth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Acworth — the short answer
Acworth, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 8a is Acworth's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Acworth's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Acworth
Each reading below is measured for Acworth itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAcworth runs about 250 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
MeasuredAcworth sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Acworth is in
Acworth sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Acworth's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cobb County.
What Grows in Acworth
Every plant below cleared Acworth's own zone 8a and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Acworth?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Acworth
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Acworth. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ACWORTH SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- STOP N SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ACWORTH AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- RED ARROW CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TT&C INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CITY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BST/ACWORTH CO/F5341Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- L A KENNEDY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- COWAN ROAD EXTENSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DAY'S CHEVROLET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- T&L KWIK SHOP #81Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AMOCO STATION #4273Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Acworth'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 Acworth.
Total Sites
735
within ~10 miles of Acworth
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Acworth
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Acworth
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Acworth, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Acworth — Toxics Release Inventory (57 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (480 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Acworth
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 Acworth average
Your land is one point inside Acworth
Everything above resolves to Acworth as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Acworth Average
Acworth Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Acworth
- ●One soil character for all of Acworth
- ●Frost dates read at Acworth's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Acworth's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Acworth
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Acworth, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Acworth averages can't show:
We read public map data around Acworth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Acworth average
How we know this about Acworth
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 Acworth’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 Acworth
When does frost risk typically end in Acworth?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Acworth typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Acworth?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Acworth typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Acworth?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Acworth sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 5, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Acworth?
The federal record around Acworth is a meaningful one — 735 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (480), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Acworth?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Acworth's scale — its 8a band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Acworth'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 Acworth’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Acworth's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,854 acres it covers and 735 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Acworth's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Acworth's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 19 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 735 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Acworth, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Acworth's boundary and the 5,854 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Acworth's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Acworth's 5,854 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cobb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cobb County
- The growing challenges every Georgia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Georgia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Cobb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Acworth's 5,854 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Acworth you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,854 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Acworth-wide figureread your own land →
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