Crescent, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Crescent, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Crescent lot. 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 Crescent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crescent — the short answer
Crescent, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- McIntosh County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- McIntosh County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- McIntosh County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are McIntosh County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Crescent's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crescent's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crescent
Each reading below is measured for Crescent itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCrescent runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from McIntosh County, the closest normal to Crescent) — 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
MeasuredCrescent sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Crescent is in
Crescent sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Crescent's own centroid rather than borrowed from McIntosh County.
What Grows in Crescent
Every plant below cleared Crescent's own zone 9a and its 300-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crescent?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — 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's on the federal record near Crescent
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crescent. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROZIERS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GA DOT 10583/OLD MCINTOSH MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CRESCENT FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BUBBAS QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SUNSHINE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- DRIGGER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CRESENT EQUIPMENT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SHELLMAN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BRANNENS SEAFOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- PINE HARBOR MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- 34L027Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- EULONIA GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crescent'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 Crescent.
Total Sites
77
within ~10 miles of Crescent
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
14 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crescent
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crescent, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 63 sites within ~10 miles of Crescent. 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 Crescent
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 Crescent average
Your land is one point inside Crescent
Everything above resolves to Crescent as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from McIntosh County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Crescent Average
Crescent Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Crescent
- ●One soil character for all of Crescent
- ●Frost dates read at Crescent's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crescent's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crescent
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crescent, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crescent averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crescent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crescent average
How we know this about Crescent
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at McIntosh County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Crescent
When does frost risk typically end in Crescent?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crescent typically lands around Feb 14, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Crescent?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crescent typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crescent?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crescent sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 27, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crescent?
The federal record around Crescent shows 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crescent?
From about Nov 11 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crescent's scale — its 9a band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crescent's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Crescent’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Crescent's own scale — the 2,917 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crescent's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crescent, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crescent's boundary and the 2,917 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~300-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crescent's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Crescent has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom McIntosh County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crescent's 2,917 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McIntosh County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McIntosh County
- The growing challenges every Georgia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Georgia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom McIntosh County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crescent's 2,917 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crescent you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,917 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Crescent-wide figureread your own land →
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