Cook County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Cook County lies within the Deep South Georgia / Wiregrass — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Cook County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Cook 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 Cook County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cook County — the short answer
Cook County, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 301 days between hard freezes, across 146K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~301
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 146K 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 Cook County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cook County's 301-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Cook County
Across a year, Cook County accumulates about 6,230 growing degree days above 50°F, about 815 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 140 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 590 hours below 45°F, 546 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 Cook County
Across Cook County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Tifton, Leefield, and Alapaha 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
26%
Hydric soils
30%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Cook County
The USDA soil survey maps 33% of Cook County as well drained — but another 65% drains differently: 30% poorly drained, 22% somewhat poorly drained.
Tifton is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Leefield (14%) and Alapaha (14%).
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 Cook County
Each reading below is measured for Cook 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 Cook 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 Cook 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 30% of Cook 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
MeasuredCook County runs about 301 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 Cook County is in
Cook 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 Cook County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Cook County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 301-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 Cook County?
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 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.
Documented around Cook County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Cook County
USGS estimates 43,185 lb of Glyphosate on Cook County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (20,858 lb) and Dicamba (11,589 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 Cook County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Cook County — 144 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). 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 Cook 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 Cook County
Closest first, across Cook County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ADEL BEVERAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- COOK COUNTY SCHOOL BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 18H037Nitrate · 2100 ft
- FORMER TEXACO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ADEL FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TALLEY CORBETT BOX COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MEMORIAL HOSPITAL OF ADEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SPECIALTY STAMPINGSToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- FORMER SHELL SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- QUICK CHANGE #6Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 18H033Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- WISEMAN OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cook 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 Cook County.
Total Sites
144
across Cook County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Cook County
Severity Distribution
across Cook County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cook County, two things run higher than the national average across Cook County — Nitrate (44 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cook 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 Cook County average
Your land is one point inside Cook County
Everything above resolves to Cook County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 146K 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 Cook County Average
Cook County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Cook County
- ●One soil character for all of Cook County
- ●Frost dates read at Cook County's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cook County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Cook County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cook County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cook County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cook County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cook County average
How we know this about Cook 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 Cook County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Cook County
When does frost risk typically end in Cook County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cook County 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.
How long is the growing season in Cook County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cook County 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 Cook County?
The federal record around Cook County is a meaningful one — 144 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Cook County's scale — its 9a band and its 301-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cook 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 Cook County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Cook County's own scale — its own ~301-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 144 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cook County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cook County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~301-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Cook CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 144 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Cook County's boundary and the 146,220 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~301-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cook County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Cook County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Cook 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 Cook County — the ~301 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 Cook County's 146,220 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 144 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 Cook Countyread your own land →