Ben Hill County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Ben Hill County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Ben Hill County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Ben Hill County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ben Hill County — the short answer
Ben Hill County, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 160K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 160K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 9a is Ben Hill County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ben Hill County's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Ben Hill County
Across a year, Ben Hill County accumulates about 5,956 growing degree days above 50°F, about 541 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 118 of Georgia’s 159 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 748 hours below 45°F, 388 fewer than the Georgia middle of 1,136. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Ben Hill County
Across Ben Hill County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Tifton, Fuquay, and Esto are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.7–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
27%
Hydric soils
27%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Ben Hill County
The USDA soil survey maps 57% of Ben Hill County as well drained — but another 41% drains differently: 26% poorly drained, 8% somewhat poorly drained.
Tifton is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Fuquay (16%) and Esto (12%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Ben Hill County
Each reading below is measured for Ben Hill County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Ben Hill County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Ben Hill County runs about pH 4.7–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 27% of Ben Hill County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBen Hill County runs about 291 days between hard freezes — 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
The kind of country Ben Hill County is in
Ben Hill County sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Ben Hill County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Ben Hill County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 291-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile.
Is it too late to plant in Ben Hill County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What gets applied to farmland in Ben Hill County
USGS estimates 28,119 lb of Glyphosate on Ben Hill County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (14,270 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (9,173 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Ben Hill County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Ben Hill County — 109 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Ben Hill County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Ben Hill County
Closest first, across Ben Hill County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT&T FITZGERALD RADIO TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- GILMAN BUILDING PRODUCTS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.9 mi
- FITZGERALDPFAS · 3.1 mi
- STOP AND GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- AMERICAN BLANCHING CO.Brownfields · 3.4 mi
- VLS RAIL (FITZGERALD)Brownfields · 3.5 mi
- GBW RAILCAR SERVICES, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.5 mi
- GBW RAILCAR SERVICES, LLCBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- PACE AMERICAN OF GEORGIAToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- TORGINOLBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- HAULMARK INDUSTRIES INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 4.1 mi
- DEEP SOUTH PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ben Hill County'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 Ben Hill County.
Total Sites
109
across Ben Hill County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Ben Hill County
Severity Distribution
across Ben Hill County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ben Hill County, two things run higher than the national average across Ben Hill County — Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (76 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ben Hill County
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 Ben Hill County average
Your land is one point inside Ben Hill County
Everything above resolves to Ben Hill County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 160K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Ben Hill County Average
Ben Hill County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Ben Hill County
- ●One soil character for all of Ben Hill County
- ●Frost dates read at Ben Hill County's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ben Hill County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Ben Hill County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ben Hill County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ben Hill County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ben Hill County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ben Hill County average
How we know this about Ben Hill County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Ben Hill County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Ben Hill County
When does frost risk typically end in Ben Hill County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ben Hill County typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 7.
How long is the growing season in Ben Hill County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ben Hill County sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 18, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ben Hill County?
The federal record around Ben Hill County shows 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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.
Everything above is measured at Ben Hill County's scale — its 9a band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ben Hill County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Georgia's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Ben Hill County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Ben Hill County's own scale — its own ~291-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 109 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ben Hill County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ben Hill County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~291-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Ben Hill CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 109 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Ben Hill County's boundary and the 160,076 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ben Hill County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Ben Hill County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Georgia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Georgia
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Ben Hill County — the ~291 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ben Hill County's 160,076 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 109 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Ben Hill Countyread your own land →