Grady County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grady County lies within the Thomasville Red Hills — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Grady County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Grady 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 Grady County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Grady County — the short answer
Grady County, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 291K 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 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 291K 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 Grady County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grady County's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Grady County
Across a year, Grady County accumulates about 6,248 growing degree days above 50°F, about 833 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 142 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 601 hours below 45°F, 535 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 Grady County
Across Grady County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Tifton, Nankin, and Dothan are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.8, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
61%
Hydric soils
18%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Grady County
The USDA soil survey maps 73% of Grady County as well drained — but another 25% drains differently: 18% poorly drained, 4% somewhat poorly drained.
Tifton is the most extensive named soil at 23% of mapped acres, then Nankin (9%) and Dothan (7%).
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 Grady County
Each reading below is measured for Grady 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 Grady 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 Grady County runs about pH 5.0–5.8, 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 18% of Grady 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
MeasuredGrady County runs about 297 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 Grady County is in
Grady 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 Grady County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Grady County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 297-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 Grady 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 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What gets applied to farmland in Grady County
USGS estimates 54,980 lb of Glyphosate on Grady County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (19,734 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (18,342 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 Grady County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Grady County — 129 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Grady 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 Grady County
Closest first, across Grady County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WIGHT NURSERIES MAIN DIVISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 12F025Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 12F036Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 12F030Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- ALLTEL GA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- QUICK BUYS #118Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- APC #526Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- ONE CONVENIENT STOP #5Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- DREW SELF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 12F019Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- NORTHSIDE ELEM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- FLAV-O-RICH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grady 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 Grady County.
Total Sites
129
across Grady County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Grady County
Severity Distribution
across Grady County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grady County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 93 sites across Grady County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Grady 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 Grady County average
Your land is one point inside Grady County
Everything above resolves to Grady County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 291K 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 Grady County Average
Grady County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Grady County
- ●One soil character for all of Grady County
- ●Frost dates read at Grady County's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grady County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Grady County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grady County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grady County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grady County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grady County average
How we know this about Grady 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 Grady County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Grady County
When does frost risk typically end in Grady County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grady 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 Grady County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grady County sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 24, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grady County?
The federal record around Grady County shows 129 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (93), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Grady County's scale — its 9a band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grady 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 Grady County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Grady County's own scale — its own ~297-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 129 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grady County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grady County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~297-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Grady CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 129 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Grady County's boundary and the 290,857 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Grady County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Grady 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 Grady County — the ~297 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 Grady County's 290,857 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 129 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 Grady Countyread your own land →