Houston 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Houston County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Houston 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 Houston County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Houston County — the short answer
Houston County, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 241K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 241K 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 Houston County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Houston County's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Houston County
Across a year, Houston County accumulates about 5,616 growing degree days above 50°F, about 201 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 92 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 981 hours below 45°F, 155 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 Houston County
Across Houston County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Faceville, Orangeburg, and Greenville are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
46%
Hydric soils
16%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Houston County
The USDA soil survey maps 75% of Houston County as well drained — but another 25% drains differently: 15% poorly drained, 5% moderately well drained.
Faceville is the most extensive named soil at 22% of mapped acres, then Orangeburg (16%) and Greenville (11%).
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 Houston County
Each reading below is measured for Houston 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 Houston 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 Houston County runs about pH 5.0–5.3, 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 16% of Houston 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
MeasuredHouston County runs about 287 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 Houston County is in
Houston 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 Houston County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Houston County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 287-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 Houston 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 Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — 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 Houston County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Houston County
USGS estimates 18,955 lb of Glyphosate on Houston County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Fluometuron (15,331 lb) and Acetochlor (12,682 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 Houston County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Houston County — 408 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites. 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 Houston 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 Houston County
Closest first, across Houston County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KINGS CHAPEL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- STATION ON US HWY 341 PERRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KLONDIKE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CROWN BEVERAGE PACKAGING INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- HEILEMAN BREWING COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- G HEILEMAN BREWING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 16T003Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- CROWN CORK & SEAL/CONTINENTAL CAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MEDUSA CEMENT CO/CLINCHFIELD PLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- PERDUE FOODS, LLC (PERRY, GEORGIA)Toxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- PERDUE FOODS, LLC (PERRY, GEORGIA)Brownfields · 2.2 mi
- HOUSTON COUNTY PURCHASING DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Houston 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 Houston County.
Sources Checked
across Houston County
Severity Distribution
across Houston County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Houston County, two things run higher than the national average across Houston County — PFAS (6 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Houston 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 Houston County average
Your land is one point inside Houston County
Everything above resolves to Houston County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 241K 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 Houston County Average
Houston County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Houston County
- ●One soil character for all of Houston County
- ●Frost dates read at Houston County's scale: Feb 20 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Houston County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Houston County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Houston County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Houston County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Houston County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Houston County average
How we know this about Houston 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 Houston County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Houston County
When does frost risk typically end in Houston County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Houston County typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Houston County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Houston County sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 20, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Houston County?
The federal record around Houston County is a meaningful one — 408 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (281), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Houston County's scale — its 8b band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Houston 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 Houston County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Houston County's own scale — its own ~287-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 408 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Houston County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Houston County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~287-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Houston CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 408 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Houston County's boundary and the 240,740 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Houston County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Houston County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Houston 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 Houston County — the ~287 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 Houston County's 240,740 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 408 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 Houston Countyread your own land →