Bishop, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bishop, 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 Bishop 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 Bishop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bishop — the short answer
Bishop, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 528 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Oconee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Oconee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- Oconee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 528 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 Oconee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Bishop's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bishop's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bishop
Each reading below is measured for Bishop itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBishop runs about 260 days between hard freezes (read from Oconee County, the closest normal to Bishop) — 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
MeasuredBishop sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Bishop is in
Bishop sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bishop's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oconee County.
What Grows in Bishop
Every plant below cleared Bishop's own zone 8b and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bishop?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Bishop
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bishop. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AL MANN SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- GOLDEN PANTRY #77Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- OCONEE COUNTY INTERMEDIATE SCHOOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- HIGH SHOALS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- GOLDEN PANTRY #64Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- GOLDEN PANTRY #4Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CARSON STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- FAST PHILSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- KILPATRICKS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- UNION CAMP FARMINTON WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- J&B FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- OCONEE WELL DRILLERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bishop'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 Bishop.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bishop
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bishop
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bishop, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 221 sites within ~10 miles of Bishop. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Bishop
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 Bishop average
Your land is one point inside Bishop
Everything above resolves to Bishop as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 528 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Oconee 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 Bishop Average
Bishop Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bishop
- ●One soil character for all of Bishop
- ●Frost dates read at Bishop's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bishop's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bishop
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bishop, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bishop averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bishop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bishop average
How we know this about Bishop
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 Oconee 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 Bishop
When does frost risk typically end in Bishop?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bishop typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Bishop?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bishop typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bishop?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bishop sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 12, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bishop?
The federal record around Bishop is a meaningful one — 298 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (221), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bishop?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bishop's scale — its 8b band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bishop'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 Bishop’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bishop's own scale — the 528 acres it covers and 298 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bishop's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 298 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bishop, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bishop's boundary and the 528 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bishop's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bishop has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Oconee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bishop's 528 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oconee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oconee 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 Oconee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bishop's 528 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bishop you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 528 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 Bishop-wide figureread your own land →