Cedartown, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cedartown, 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 Cedartown 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 Cedartown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cedartown — the short answer
Cedartown, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Cedartown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cedartown's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cedartown
Each reading below is measured for Cedartown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCedartown runs about 240 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
MeasuredCedartown 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 Cedartown is in
Cedartown sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cedartown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in Cedartown
Every plant below cleared Cedartown's own zone 8a and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cedartown?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 Cedartown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cedartown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITGO BURGER KINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WALGREENS #17083Brownfields · 1200 ft
- BARRETTS USED CARS/ANDREWS SVC CUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- D&S AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- KROGER GA-429Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- KROGER #011-0429Brownfields · 1400 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #5356Brownfields · 1500 ft
- QUIK WAY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HARIOM BUSINESS INC DBA DISCOUNT FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- POLK GENERAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SRUJAL INC MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- UNKNOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cedartown'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 Cedartown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cedartown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cedartown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cedartown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cedartown — Superfund (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (118 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Cedartown
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 Cedartown average
Your land is one point inside Cedartown
Everything above resolves to Cedartown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Cedartown Average
Cedartown Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cedartown
- ●One soil character for all of Cedartown
- ●Frost dates read at Cedartown's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cedartown's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cedartown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cedartown, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cedartown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cedartown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cedartown average
How we know this about Cedartown
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 Cedartown’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 Cedartown
When does frost risk typically end in Cedartown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cedartown typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Cedartown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cedartown typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cedartown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cedartown sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 30, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cedartown?
The federal record around Cedartown runs heavier than most — 175 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (118), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cedartown?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cedartown's scale — its 8a band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cedartown'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 Cedartown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cedartown's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,831 acres it covers and 175 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cedartown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cedartown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 13 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 175 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cedartown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cedartown's boundary and the 5,831 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cedartown's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cedartown's 5,831 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cedartown's 5,831 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cedartown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,831 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Cedartown-wide figureread your own land →
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