Habersham County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Habersham 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
Habersham County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Habersham 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 Habersham County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Habersham County — the short answer
Habersham County, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 177K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 177K 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 Habersham County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Habersham County's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Habersham County
Across a year, Habersham County accumulates about 3,963 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,452 fewer than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 7 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 1,796 hours below 45°F, 660 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 Habersham County
Across Habersham County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Cecil, Madison, and Porters are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy 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
5%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Habersham County
The USDA soil survey maps 87% of Habersham County as well drained — but another 12% drains differently: 5% somewhat excessively drained, 3% poorly drained.
Cecil is the most extensive named soil at 35% of mapped acres, then Madison (30%) and Porters (5%).
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 Habersham County
Each reading below is measured for Habersham 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 Habersham 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 Habersham 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
MeasuredHabersham County runs about 232 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
MeasuredHabersham 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 Habersham County is in
Habersham County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Piedmont (87%) and Blue Ridge (13%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Habersham County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Habersham County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 232-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 Habersham County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Habersham County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly158 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Habersham County
USGS estimates 4,304 lb of 2,4-d on Habersham County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (1,476 lb) and Triclopyr (795 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 Habersham County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Habersham County — 231 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 Habersham 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 Habersham County
Closest first, across Habersham County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORTH GEORGIA TECHNICAL COLLEGE - IVESTER CENTER GYMBrownfields · 2200 ft
- KARKI LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GDE ClarksvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GULF FOODMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CLARKESVILLE MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CITY HALL & FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- REGENCY THERMOGRAPHICS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- HABERSHAM CO COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- DUNCAN OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WALGREENS #19561Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- CIRCLE K #2084Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- FIELDALE/CLARKESVILLE HATCHERY EUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Habersham 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 Habersham County.
Total Sites
231
across Habersham County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Habersham County
Severity Distribution
across Habersham County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Habersham County, two things run higher than the national average across Habersham County — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (181 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Habersham 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 Habersham County average
Your land is one point inside Habersham County
Everything above resolves to Habersham County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 177K 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 Habersham County Average
Habersham County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Habersham County
- ●One soil character for all of Habersham County
- ●Frost dates read at Habersham County's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Habersham County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Habersham County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Habersham County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Habersham County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Habersham County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Habersham County average
How we know this about Habersham 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 Habersham County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Habersham County
When does frost risk typically end in Habersham County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Habersham County typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Habersham County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Habersham County sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 27, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Habersham County?
The federal record around Habersham County is a meaningful one — 231 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (181), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Habersham County's scale — its 8a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Habersham 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 Habersham County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Habersham County's own scale — its own ~232-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 231 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Habersham County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Habersham County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Habersham CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 231 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Habersham County's boundary and the 177,195 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Habersham County spans, Piedmont the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Habersham County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Habersham 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 Habersham County — the ~232 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 Habersham County's 177,195 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 231 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 Habersham Countyread your own land →