Harris County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Harris 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
Harris County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Harris 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 Harris County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Harris County — the short answer
Harris County, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 297K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 297K 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 8b is Harris County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harris County's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Harris County
Across a year, Harris County accumulates about 5,046 growing degree days above 50°F, about 369 fewer than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 62 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 1,277 hours below 45°F, 141 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 Harris County
Across Harris County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Pacolet, Cecil, and Chewacla 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
15%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Harris County
The USDA soil survey maps 83% of Harris County as well drained — but another 14% drains differently: 7% somewhat poorly drained, 7% moderately well drained.
Pacolet is the most extensive named soil at 53% of mapped acres, then Cecil (26%) and Chewacla (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 Harris County
Each reading below is measured for Harris 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 Harris 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 Harris 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
MeasuredHarris County runs about 269 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
MeasuredHarris County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Harris County is in
Harris 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 Harris County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Harris County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 269-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 Harris 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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Harris County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly4 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Harris County
USGS estimates 2,037 lb of 2,4-d on Harris County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (452 lb) and Dicamba (71 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 Harris County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Harris County — 107 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Harris 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 Harris County
Closest first, across Harris County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAMILTON MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- J&A TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HAMILTON AUTO PARTS (SHANNON COTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- DOT 10320/HARRIS CO MAINT HQUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CIRCLE K 6699Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- VACANT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- THE FILLING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- B & G FOODMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- HARRIS COUNTY SCHOOL BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- HARRIS COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- GRAY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- GA FC/HARRIS CO UNITUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Harris 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 Harris County.
Total Sites
107
across Harris County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Harris County
Severity Distribution
across Harris County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Harris County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 92 sites across Harris 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 Harris 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 Harris County average
Your land is one point inside Harris County
Everything above resolves to Harris County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 297K 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 Harris County Average
Harris County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Harris County
- ●One soil character for all of Harris County
- ●Frost dates read at Harris County's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harris County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Harris County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harris County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harris County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harris County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harris County average
How we know this about Harris 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 Harris County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Harris County
When does frost risk typically end in Harris County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harris County typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
How long is the growing season in Harris County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harris County sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 13, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Harris County?
The federal record around Harris County shows 107 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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 Harris County's scale — its 8b band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harris 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 Harris County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Harris County's own scale — its own ~269-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 107 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harris County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Harris County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~269-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Harris CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 107 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Harris County's boundary and the 296,848 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Harris County sitting wholly inside the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Harris County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Harris 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 Harris County — the ~269 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 Harris County's 296,848 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 107 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 Harris Countyread your own land →