Oglethorpe County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Oglethorpe 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
Oglethorpe County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Oglethorpe 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 Oglethorpe County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oglethorpe County — the short answer
Oglethorpe County, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 281K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 281K 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 Oglethorpe County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oglethorpe County's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Oglethorpe County
Across a year, Oglethorpe County accumulates about 4,825 growing degree days above 50°F, about 590 fewer than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 46 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 1,489 hours below 45°F, 353 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 Oglethorpe County
Across Oglethorpe County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Cecil, Pacolet, and Madison are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
30%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Oglethorpe County
The USDA soil survey maps 90% of Oglethorpe County as well drained — but another 9% drains differently: 5% somewhat poorly drained, 4% moderately well drained.
Cecil is the most extensive named soil at 29% of mapped acres, then Pacolet (18%) and Madison (13%).
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 Oglethorpe County
Each reading below is measured for Oglethorpe 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 Oglethorpe 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 Oglethorpe County runs about pH 5.3–5.5, 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
MeasuredOglethorpe County runs about 259 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
MeasuredOglethorpe 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 Oglethorpe County is in
Oglethorpe 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 Oglethorpe County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Oglethorpe County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 259-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 Oglethorpe County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Oglethorpe County
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Oglethorpe County
USGS estimates 9,330 lb of 2,4-d on Oglethorpe County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (2,693 lb) and Triclopyr (1,683 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 Oglethorpe County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Oglethorpe County — 60 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (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 Oglethorpe 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 Oglethorpe County
Closest first, across Oglethorpe County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OGLETHORPE COUNTY WORK CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- OGLETHORPE COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WHELESS GRADING CONTRACTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ALLTEL GA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PRICE AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- RAYLE ELECTRIC MEMBERSHIP CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JACK OGLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- WALLACE GRAHAM CONST COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 21EE01Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- ACREE OIL CO DBA ATHENS OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- LEXINGTONToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- OGLETHORPE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oglethorpe 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 Oglethorpe County.
Total Sites
60
across Oglethorpe County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Oglethorpe County
Severity Distribution
across Oglethorpe County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oglethorpe County, two things run higher than the national average across Oglethorpe County — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (48 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Oglethorpe 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 Oglethorpe County average
Your land is one point inside Oglethorpe County
Everything above resolves to Oglethorpe County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 281K 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 Oglethorpe County Average
Oglethorpe County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Oglethorpe County
- ●One soil character for all of Oglethorpe County
- ●Frost dates read at Oglethorpe County's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oglethorpe County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Oglethorpe County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oglethorpe County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oglethorpe County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oglethorpe County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oglethorpe County average
How we know this about Oglethorpe 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 Oglethorpe County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Oglethorpe County
When does frost risk typically end in Oglethorpe County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oglethorpe County typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
How long is the growing season in Oglethorpe County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oglethorpe County sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 9, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oglethorpe County?
The federal record around Oglethorpe County is a meaningful one — 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Oglethorpe County's scale — its 8b band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oglethorpe 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 Oglethorpe County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Oglethorpe County's own scale — its own ~259-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 60 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oglethorpe County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oglethorpe County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~259-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Oglethorpe CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 60 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Oglethorpe County's boundary and the 280,999 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Oglethorpe County sitting wholly inside the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Oglethorpe County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Oglethorpe 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 Oglethorpe County — the ~259 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 Oglethorpe County's 280,999 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 60 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 Oglethorpe Countyread your own land →