Towns County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Towns County lies within the Blue Ridge and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Towns County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Towns 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 Towns County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Towns County — the short answer
Towns County, Georgia: USDA zone 7b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 107K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 107K 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 7b is Towns County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Towns County's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Towns County
Across a year, Towns County accumulates about 3,267 growing degree days above 50°F, about 2,148 fewer than the middle Georgia county — no other Georgia county banks fewer. 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 2,350 hours below 45°F, 1,214 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 Towns County
Across Towns County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Tusquitee, Porters, and Ashe are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
3%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Towns County
The USDA soil survey maps 87% of Towns County as well drained — but another 10% drains differently: 6% somewhat excessively drained, 2% moderately well drained.
Tusquitee is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Porters (15%) and Ashe (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 Towns County
Each reading below is measured for Towns 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 Towns County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Towns 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
MeasuredTowns County runs about 204 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
MeasuredTowns County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Towns County is in
Towns County sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Towns County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Towns County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 204-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 Towns County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Towns County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Towns County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 50 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Towns County
USGS estimates 585 lb of Atrazine on Towns County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (556 lb) and Glyphosate (461 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 Towns County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Towns County — 60 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 mining site (prospects, none worked). Historic and active mines that may leach heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
The federal record across Towns 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 Towns County
Closest first, across Towns County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HIAWASSEEPFAS · 0.9 mi
- THE PASTURE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HIAWASSEE BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ORBITINDUSTRIES HIAWASSEE GARMENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MOORELANDS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 16PP01Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- SUNNY BAY CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DENTONS GROCERY & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- TOWNS CO COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- PALMER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BALD MOUNTAIN PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- PARKER OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Towns 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 Towns County.
Total Sites
60
across Towns County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
across Towns County
Severity Distribution
across Towns County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Towns County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 48 sites across Towns County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Towns 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 Towns County average
Your land is one point inside Towns County
Everything above resolves to Towns County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 107K 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 Towns County Average
Towns County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Towns County
- ●One soil character for all of Towns County
- ●Frost dates read at Towns County's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Towns County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Towns County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Towns County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Towns County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Towns County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Towns County average
How we know this about Towns 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 Towns County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Towns County
When does frost risk typically end in Towns County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Towns County typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
How long is the growing season in Towns County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Towns County sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 14, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Towns County?
The federal record around Towns County shows 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), the nearest PFAS record about 0.9 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 Towns County's scale — its 7b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Towns 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 Towns County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Towns County's own scale — its own ~204-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
- Towns County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Towns County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Towns CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 60 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Towns County's boundary and the 106,621 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Towns County sitting wholly inside the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Towns County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Towns 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 Towns County — the ~204 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 Towns County's 106,621 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 Towns Countyread your own land →