Cecil, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cecil, 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 Cecil 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 Cecil — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cecil — the short answer
Cecil, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 301 days between hard freezes, across 614 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Cook County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Cook County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~301
- Cook County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 614 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 Cook County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Cecil's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cecil's 301-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cecil
Each reading below is measured for Cecil itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCecil runs about 301 days between hard freezes (read from Cook County, the closest normal to Cecil) — 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
MeasuredCecil 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 Cecil is in
Cecil sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cecil's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cook County.
What Grows in Cecil
Every plant below cleared Cecil's own zone 9a and its 301-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cecil?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Cecil
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cecil. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAHIRA MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- FAMILY WORLDUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CHEVRON #44160Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- #929 (DISCOUNT CORNER #1)Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 18G018Nitrate · 1100 ft
- FAMILY WORLD CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CHEVRON FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CECIL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SO GA MOTOSPORTS PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SUNSHINE ACRES MOBILE HOME PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- TRULIEVE ADELBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- BP FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cecil'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 Cecil.
Total Sites
175
within ~10 miles of Cecil
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cecil
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cecil
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cecil, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cecil — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (62 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cecil
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 Cecil average
Your land is one point inside Cecil
Everything above resolves to Cecil as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 614 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Cook 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 Cecil Average
Cecil Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Cecil
- ●One soil character for all of Cecil
- ●Frost dates read at Cecil's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cecil's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cecil
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cecil, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cecil averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cecil — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cecil average
How we know this about Cecil
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 Cook 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 Cecil
When does frost risk typically end in Cecil?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cecil typically lands around Feb 12, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Cecil?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cecil typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 301 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cecil?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cecil sees about 301 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 26, about 266 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cecil?
The federal record around Cecil is a meaningful one — 175 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), 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 Cecil?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cecil's scale — its 9a band and its 301-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cecil'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 Cecil’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cecil's own scale — the 614 acres it covers and 175 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cecil's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 175 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cecil, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cecil's boundary and the 614 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~301-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cecil's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cecil has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Cook County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cecil's 614 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cook County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cook 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 Cook County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cecil's 614 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cecil you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 614 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 Cecil-wide figureread your own land →
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