Haralson County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Haralson 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
Haralson County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Haralson 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 Haralson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Haralson County — the short answer
Haralson County, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 181K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 181K 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 Haralson County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Haralson County's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Haralson County
Across a year, Haralson County accumulates about 4,427 growing degree days above 50°F, about 988 fewer than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 15 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 1,622 hours below 45°F, 486 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 Haralson County
Across Haralson County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Tallapoosa, Grover, and Madison are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a gravelly fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
7%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Haralson County
The USDA soil survey maps 85% of Haralson County as well drained — but another 14% drains differently: 9% somewhat poorly drained, 4% somewhat excessively drained.
Tallapoosa is the most extensive named soil at 44% of mapped acres, then Grover (18%) and Madison (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 Haralson County
Each reading below is measured for Haralson 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 Haralson County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Haralson County runs about pH 4.8–5.5, 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
MeasuredHaralson County runs about 235 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
MeasuredHaralson 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 Haralson County is in
Haralson 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 Haralson County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Haralson County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 235-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 Haralson 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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What gets applied to farmland in Haralson County
USGS estimates 2,692 lb of Atrazine on Haralson County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (2,465 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,034 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 Haralson County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Haralson County — 145 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Haralson 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 Haralson County
Closest first, across Haralson County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HC TRANSP DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- WATERS SHELL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BELLSOUTH BUCHANAN CO R5960Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- HARALSON COUNTY BD OF EDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BUSY BEE MARKET #4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MCCALMAN & CO BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HARRALSON COUNTY DETENTION CENTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- KIMBALL CARE NURSING HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HARALSON COUNTY ROAD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DONNA'S STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- TURNER'S PUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- AT&T-CUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Haralson 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 Haralson County.
Total Sites
145
across Haralson County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Haralson County
Severity Distribution
across Haralson County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Haralson County, two things run higher than the national average across Haralson County — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Haralson 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 Haralson County average
Your land is one point inside Haralson County
Everything above resolves to Haralson County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 181K 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 Haralson County Average
Haralson County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Haralson County
- ●One soil character for all of Haralson County
- ●Frost dates read at Haralson County's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Haralson County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Haralson County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Haralson County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Haralson County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Haralson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Haralson County average
How we know this about Haralson 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 Haralson County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Haralson County
When does frost risk typically end in Haralson County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Haralson County typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Haralson County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Haralson County sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 29, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Haralson County?
The federal record around Haralson County shows 145 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (100), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Haralson County's scale — its 8a band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Haralson 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 Haralson County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Haralson County's own scale — its own ~235-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 145 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Haralson County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Haralson County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Haralson CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 145 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Haralson County's boundary and the 180,586 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Haralson County sitting wholly inside the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Haralson 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 Haralson County — the ~235 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 Haralson County's 180,586 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 145 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 Haralson Countyread your own land →