Candler-McAfee, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Candler-McAfee, 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 Candler-McAfee 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 Candler-McAfee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Candler-McAfee — the short answer
Candler-McAfee, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- DeKalb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- DeKalb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- DeKalb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 DeKalb County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Candler-McAfee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Candler-McAfee's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Candler-McAfee
Each reading below is measured for Candler-McAfee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCandler-McAfee runs about 269 days between hard freezes (read from DeKalb County, the closest normal to Candler-McAfee) — 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
MeasuredCandler-McAfee 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 Candler-McAfee is in
Candler-McAfee sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Candler-McAfee's own centroid rather than borrowed from DeKalb County.
What Grows in Candler-McAfee
Every plant below cleared Candler-McAfee's own zone 8a and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Candler-McAfee?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (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. 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 Candler-McAfee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Candler-McAfee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HORIS A WARD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FRANKLIN PROPERTY CO (FORMER GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHEVRON FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FASHION CARE CANDLERBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- U-HAUL 77665Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TWINER CAR WASH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- REED CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EXPRESS OIL CHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- VALEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WALGREENS 5580Brownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Candler-McAfee'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 Candler-McAfee.
Total Sites
2,730
within ~10 miles of Candler-McAfee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
66 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Candler-McAfee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Candler-McAfee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Candler-McAfee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Candler-McAfee — Superfund (66 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (2,018 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Check your specific parcel in Candler-McAfee
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 Candler-McAfee average
Your land is one point inside Candler-McAfee
Everything above resolves to Candler-McAfee as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from DeKalb 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 Candler-McAfee Average
Candler-McAfee Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Candler-McAfee
- ●One soil character for all of Candler-McAfee
- ●Frost dates read at Candler-McAfee's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Candler-McAfee's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Candler-McAfee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Candler-McAfee, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Candler-McAfee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Candler-McAfee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Candler-McAfee average
How we know this about Candler-McAfee
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 DeKalb 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 Candler-McAfee
When does frost risk typically end in Candler-McAfee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Candler-McAfee typically lands around Mar 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Candler-McAfee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Candler-McAfee 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 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Candler-McAfee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Candler-McAfee sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 15, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Candler-McAfee?
The federal record around Candler-McAfee is a meaningful one — 2,730 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,018), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Candler-McAfee?
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 Candler-McAfee's scale — its 8a band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Candler-McAfee'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 Candler-McAfee’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Candler-McAfee's own scale — the 4,455 acres it covers and 2,730 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Candler-McAfee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,730 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Candler-McAfee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Candler-McAfee's boundary and the 4,455 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Candler-McAfee's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Candler-McAfee has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom DeKalb County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Candler-McAfee's 4,455 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DeKalb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DeKalb 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 DeKalb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Candler-McAfee's 4,455 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Candler-McAfee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,455 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Candler-McAfee-wide figureread your own land →
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