Carlton, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Carlton, 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 Carlton 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 Carlton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carlton — the short answer
Carlton, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 644 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 644 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 Carlton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carlton's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carlton
Each reading below is measured for Carlton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarlton runs about 251 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
MeasuredCarlton 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 Carlton is in
Carlton sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Carlton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Carlton
Every plant below cleared Carlton's own zone 8a and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carlton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Carlton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carlton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THIRKELD GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CARLTON TRUCK SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BENTON BRO GROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TINY TOWN LOONEY MART INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MRS J J SMITH STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- ROYALTY/BERKELEY QUARRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- HOUSE OF RAEFORD COLUMBIA FARMS OF GA FEED MILLToxics Release Inventory · 3.4 mi
- JOE JOHNSON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- FOX SOUTH ENTERPRISES INC DBA VALEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- JIM MINIT MARKET #6Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- GA FC/ELBERT CO UNITUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- BETHEL FOODLANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carlton'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 Carlton.
Total Sites
64
within ~10 miles of Carlton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carlton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carlton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carlton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Carlton — Underground Storage Tanks (51 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Carlton
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 Carlton average
Your land is one point inside Carlton
Everything above resolves to Carlton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 644 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 Carlton Average
Carlton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Carlton
- ●One soil character for all of Carlton
- ●Frost dates read at Carlton's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carlton's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carlton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carlton, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carlton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carlton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carlton average
How we know this about Carlton
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 Carlton’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 Carlton
When does frost risk typically end in Carlton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carlton 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 Carlton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carlton typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carlton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carlton sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 6, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carlton?
The federal record around Carlton is a meaningful one — 64 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), 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 Carlton?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carlton's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carlton'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 Carlton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carlton's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 644 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carlton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carlton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 20 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carlton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carlton's boundary and the 644 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carlton's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carlton's 644 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carlton's 644 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carlton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 644 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 Carlton-wide figureread your own land →
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