Cumming, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cumming, 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 Cumming 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 Cumming — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cumming — the short answer
Cumming, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 8a is Cumming's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cumming's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cumming
Each reading below is measured for Cumming itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCumming runs about 254 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
MeasuredCumming sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Cumming is in
Cumming sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cumming's own centroid rather than borrowed from Forsyth County.
What Grows in Cumming
Every plant below cleared Cumming's own zone 8a and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cumming?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Cumming
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cumming. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARRY'S STORE/OLDE TOWN BOTTLE SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TEXACO LAKE FOODMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- UNKNOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FORSYTH CO ADMIN BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TRONCALLI DODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GA DOT/FORSYTH CO MTC HQ 10106Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FORSYTH COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FORSYTH COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WHITMIRE'S AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BST/CUMMING/R3133Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LOY J GROGANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ED BURRUSSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cumming'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 Cumming.
Total Sites
493
within ~10 miles of Cumming
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cumming
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cumming
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cumming, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Cumming. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cumming
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 Cumming average
Your land is one point inside Cumming
Everything above resolves to Cumming as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 city 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 Cumming Average
Cumming Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cumming
- ●One soil character for all of Cumming
- ●Frost dates read at Cumming's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cumming's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cumming
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cumming, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cumming averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cumming — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cumming average
How we know this about Cumming
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cumming’s own record; 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Cumming
When does frost risk typically end in Cumming?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cumming typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 4.
When is the first frost in Cumming?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cumming typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cumming?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cumming sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 9, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cumming?
The federal record around Cumming is a meaningful one — 493 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (268), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cumming?
From about Oct 24 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 Nov 23 (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 Nov 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cumming's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cumming'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 Cumming’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cumming's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,840 acres it covers and 493 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cumming's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cumming's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 23 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 493 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cumming, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cumming's boundary and the 4,840 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cumming's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cumming's 4,840 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Forsyth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Forsyth 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 Forsyth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cumming's 4,840 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cumming you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,840 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Cumming-wide figureread your own land →
More in Georgia
Growing region
Nearby growing guides