Clarke County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Clarke County lies within the Piedmont — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Clarke County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Clarke 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 Clarke County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Clarke County — the short answer
Clarke County, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 76K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 76K 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 8a is Clarke County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clarke County's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Clarke County
Across a year, Clarke County accumulates about 4,810 growing degree days above 50°F, about 605 fewer than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 44 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 1,491 hours below 45°F, 355 more 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 Clarke County
Across Clarke County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Pacolet, Cecil, and Madison are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
20%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Clarke County
The USDA soil survey maps 92% of Clarke County as well drained — but another 6% drains differently: 4% somewhat poorly drained, 2% poorly drained.
Pacolet is the most extensive named soil at 32% of mapped acres, then Cecil (23%) and Madison (19%).
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 Clarke County
Each reading below is measured for Clarke 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 Clarke 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 Clarke County runs about pH 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
Season length
MeasuredClarke County runs about 260 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredClarke County 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 Clarke County is in
Clarke County sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Clarke County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Clarke County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 260-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 Clarke County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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.
Documented around Clarke County
- Japanese beetle14 documented records
- monarch butterfly57 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Clarke County
USGS estimates 1,067 lb of 2,4-d on Clarke County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (866 lb) and Glyphosate (708 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 Clarke County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Clarke County — 502 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Clarke County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Clarke County
Closest first, across Clarke County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPEEDWAY #19/STARVIN MARVIN #19/Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BULLOCK FORD TRACTOR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- S&W AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BULLDOG SQUAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CITY FIRE EXTINGUISHER & WLDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ARMSTRONG & DOBBS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ATHENS BANNER-HERALDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PSYCHOLOGY ZONEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- UGA ATHENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA (CHICOPEE COMPLEX)Brownfields · 2300 ft
- UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA (ARTS ZONE)Brownfields · 2300 ft
- 805 EAST BROAD STREETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clarke 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 Clarke County.
Sources Checked
across Clarke County
Severity Distribution
across Clarke County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clarke County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 380 sites across Clarke County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Clarke 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 Clarke County average
Your land is one point inside Clarke County
Everything above resolves to Clarke County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 76K 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 Clarke County Average
Clarke County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Clarke County
- ●One soil character for all of Clarke County
- ●Frost dates read at Clarke County's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clarke County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Clarke County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clarke County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clarke County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clarke County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clarke County average
How we know this about Clarke 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 Clarke County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Clarke County
When does frost risk typically end in Clarke County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clarke County typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
How long is the growing season in Clarke County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clarke County sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 10, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clarke County?
The federal record around Clarke County is a meaningful one — 502 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (380), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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.
Everything above is measured at Clarke County's scale — its 8a band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clarke 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 Clarke County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Clarke County's own scale — its own ~260-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 502 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clarke County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clarke County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~260-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Clarke CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 502 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Clarke County's boundary and the 76,352 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Clarke County sitting wholly inside the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Clarke County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Clarke 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 Clarke County — the ~260 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 Clarke County's 76,352 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 502 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 Clarke Countyread your own land →