Peach 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Peach County lies within the Middle Georgia Peach Belt — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Peach County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Peach 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 Peach County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Peach County — the short answer
Peach County, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 283 days between hard freezes, across 96K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~283
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 96K 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 Peach County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peach County's 283-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Peach County
Across a year, Peach County accumulates about 5,474 growing degree days above 50°F, about 59 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 81 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 1,077 hours below 45°F, 59 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 Peach County
Across Peach 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
54%
Hydric soils
11%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Peach County
The USDA soil survey maps 84% of Peach County as well drained — but another 16% drains differently: 11% poorly drained, 5% excessively drained.
Faceville is the most extensive named soil at 25% of mapped acres, then Orangeburg (19%) and Greenville (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 Peach County
Each reading below is measured for Peach 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 Peach 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 Peach 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
Season length
MeasuredPeach County runs about 283 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
MeasuredPeach 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 Peach County is in
Peach 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 Peach County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Peach County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 283-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 Peach 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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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.
What gets applied to farmland in Peach County
USGS estimates 28,162 lb of Malathion on Peach County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (7,770 lb) and Chlorpyrifos (7,050 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 Peach County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Peach County — 133 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 16 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 Peach 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 Peach County
Closest first, across Peach County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KLOUDA ESTATESuperfund · 1.0 mi
- DOT 10343/PEACH CO MAINT HQUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- FIVE POINT SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- EVANS FARMS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- HOP IN FOOD & TOBACCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- OLIVETTI SUPPLIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- BLUE BIRD CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- BLUE BIRD CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
- EASTSIDE QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- FIVE POINTS CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- UNION 76 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- FLASH FOODS #213Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Peach 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 Peach County.
Sources Checked
across Peach County
Severity Distribution
across Peach County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Peach County, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 16 sites across Peach County. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Peach 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 Peach County average
Your land is one point inside Peach County
Everything above resolves to Peach County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 96K 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 Peach County Average
Peach County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Peach County
- ●One soil character for all of Peach County
- ●Frost dates read at Peach County's scale: Feb 22 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peach County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Peach County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peach County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peach County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peach County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peach County average
How we know this about Peach 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 Peach County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Peach County
When does frost risk typically end in Peach County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peach County typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 15.
How long is the growing season in Peach County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peach County sees about 283 frost-free days — roughly Feb 22 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 15 to Nov 18, about 248 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peach County?
The federal record around Peach County is a meaningful one — 133 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), the nearest Superfund record about 1.0 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 Peach County's scale — its 8b band and its 283-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peach 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 Peach County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Peach County's own scale — its own ~283-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 133 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peach County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Peach County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~283-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Peach CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 133 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Superfund record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Peach County's boundary and the 96,182 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~283-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Peach County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Peach 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 Peach County — the ~283 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 Peach County's 96,182 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 133 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 Peach Countyread your own land →