Cedar Springs, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cedar Springs, 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 Cedar Springs 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 Cedar Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cedar Springs — the short answer
Cedar Springs, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 13
- Early County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Early County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- Early County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Early County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Cedar Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cedar Springs's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cedar Springs
Each reading below is measured for Cedar Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCedar Springs runs about 292 days between hard freezes (read from Early County, the closest normal to Cedar Springs) — 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
MeasuredCedar Springs 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 Cedar Springs is in
Cedar Springs sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cedar Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Early County.
What Grows in Cedar Springs
Every plant below cleared Cedar Springs'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 Cedar Springs?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Cedar Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cedar Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAVERICK C&P, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- GREAT SOUTHERN WOODLANDS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- REPUBLIC CONDUIT INC. (PKA MAVERICK C&P INC.)Toxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- REPUBLIC CONDUIT INC. (PKA MAVERICK C&P INC.)Brownfields · 2300 ft
- G.P. PETRO #277Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- RITA US FOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- ODOMS COUNTRY CAFE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- FCC/RADIO STATION WBBK(AM) TRANSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- GEORGIA-PACIFIC CEDAR SPRINGS LLCBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- GEORGIA-PACIFIC CEDAR SPRINGS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.9 mi
- 06H014Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 05H001Nitrate · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cedar Springs'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 Cedar Springs.
Total Sites
62
within ~10 miles of Cedar Springs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cedar Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cedar Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cedar Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cedar Springs — Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites) and Nitrate (20 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cedar Springs
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 Cedar Springs average
Your land is one point inside Cedar Springs
Everything above resolves to Cedar Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Early 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 Cedar Springs Average
Cedar Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Cedar Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Cedar Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Cedar Springs's scale: Feb 13 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cedar Springs's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cedar Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cedar Springs, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cedar Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cedar Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cedar Springs average
How we know this about Cedar Springs
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 Early 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 Cedar Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Cedar Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Springs typically lands around Feb 13, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Cedar Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Springs typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cedar Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cedar Springs sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 13 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 6 to Nov 18, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cedar Springs?
The federal record around Cedar Springs shows 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cedar Springs?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cedar Springs's scale — its 9a band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cedar Springs'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 Cedar Springs’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cedar Springs's own scale — the 1,906 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cedar Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cedar Springs, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cedar Springs's boundary and the 1,906 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 Cedar Springs's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cedar Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Early County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cedar Springs's 1,906 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Early County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Early 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 Early County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cedar Springs's 1,906 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cedar Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,906 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 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 Cedar Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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