Dahlonega, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Dahlonega, 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 Dahlonega 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 Dahlonega — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dahlonega — the short answer
Dahlonega, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Dahlonega's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dahlonega's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dahlonega
Each reading below is measured for Dahlonega itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDahlonega runs about 242 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
MeasuredDahlonega 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 Dahlonega is in
Dahlonega sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dahlonega's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lumpkin County.
What Grows in Dahlonega
Every plant below cleared Dahlonega's own zone 8a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dahlonega?
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 Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Dahlonega
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dahlonega. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NAPA STORE-ATL546Brownfields · 600 ft
- NGA COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- FIELDALE/DAHLONEGA HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SILVER CREST FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- JOHN IRVIN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- J R CHAPMAN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CROSSROADS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BONNELL BEASLEY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- GA FOREST COMM HANGARUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- RAY CALHOUN CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- GA DOT 10116/LUMPKIN CO MAINT HQUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TEXACO FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dahlonega'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 Dahlonega.
Total Sites
124
within ~10 miles of Dahlonega
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dahlonega
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dahlonega
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dahlonega, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dahlonega — Superfund (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (100 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 Dahlonega
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 Dahlonega average
Your land is one point inside Dahlonega
Everything above resolves to Dahlonega as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Dahlonega Average
Dahlonega Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Dahlonega
- ●One soil character for all of Dahlonega
- ●Frost dates read at Dahlonega's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dahlonega's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dahlonega
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dahlonega, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dahlonega averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dahlonega — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dahlonega average
How we know this about Dahlonega
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 Dahlonega’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 Dahlonega
When does frost risk typically end in Dahlonega?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dahlonega typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Dahlonega?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dahlonega typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dahlonega?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dahlonega sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 2, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dahlonega?
The federal record around Dahlonega is a meaningful one — 124 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (100), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Dahlonega?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dahlonega's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dahlonega'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 Dahlonega’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dahlonega's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,681 acres it covers and 124 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dahlonega's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dahlonega's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 16 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 124 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dahlonega, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dahlonega's boundary and the 5,681 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dahlonega's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dahlonega's 5,681 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lumpkin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lumpkin 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 Lumpkin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dahlonega's 5,681 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dahlonega you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,681 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Dahlonega-wide figureread your own land →
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