Albany, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Albany, 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 Albany 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 Albany — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Albany — the short answer
Albany, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 35K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- Dougherty County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Dougherty County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- Dougherty County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 35K 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 Dougherty County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Albany's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Albany's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Albany
Each reading below is measured for Albany itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAlbany runs about 292 days between hard freezes (read from Dougherty County, the closest normal to Albany) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAlbany 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 Albany is in
Albany sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Albany's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dougherty County.
What Grows in Albany
Every plant below cleared Albany's own zone 9a and its 292-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Albany?
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 Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Albany
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Albany. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROAD & SLAPPEY CHEVRON\DANNY WAUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SINGLE SOURCE INCBrownfields · 550 ft
- GILES BUILDERS SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FORMER GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FLEET-CON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NATIONAL LINEN SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MCDONALD SHEET METAL WORKS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ALBANY COCA-COLA BTLG COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CLARK BROTHERS WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CLARK BROTHERS WAREHOUSESuperfund · 1500 ft
- ARA/SMITH'S TRANSFER CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PRITCHETT FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Albany'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 Albany.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Albany
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Albany
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Albany, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 509 sites within ~10 miles of Albany. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Albany
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 Albany average
Your land is one point inside Albany
Everything above resolves to Albany as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 35K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dougherty County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Albany Average
Albany Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Albany
- ●One soil character for all of Albany
- ●Frost dates read at Albany's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Albany's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Albany
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Albany, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Albany averages can't show:
We read public map data around Albany — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Albany average
How we know this about Albany
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 Dougherty 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 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 Albany
When does frost risk typically end in Albany?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Albany typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 11.
When is the first frost in Albany?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Albany typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Albany?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Albany sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 23, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Albany?
The federal record around Albany runs heavier than most — 812 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (509), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Albany?
From about Nov 7 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 Dec 7 (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 Dec 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Albany's scale — its 9a band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Albany'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 Albany’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Albany's own scale — the 35,241 acres it covers and 812 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Albany's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 812 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Albany, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Albany's boundary and the 35,241 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Albany's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Albany has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Dougherty County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Albany's 35,241 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dougherty County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dougherty 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 Dougherty County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Albany's 35,241 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Albany you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 35,241 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 Albany-wide figureread your own land →
More in Georgia
Growing region