Demorest, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Demorest, 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 Demorest 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 Demorest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Demorest — the short answer
Demorest, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Demorest's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Demorest's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Demorest
Each reading below is measured for Demorest itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDemorest runs about 241 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
MeasuredDemorest 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 Demorest is in
Demorest sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Demorest's own centroid rather than borrowed from Habersham County.
What Grows in Demorest
Every plant below cleared Demorest's own zone 8a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Demorest?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Demorest
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Demorest. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 17LL02Nitrate · 1500 ft
- CAMP CREEK GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- THE EXPRESS MART #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DEMOREST SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- H&H CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PIEDMONT COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HABERSHAM COUNTY SCHOOLS TRANSPORTATION FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WHITEMIERS OLD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DJ SIKES INC D/B/A PIEDMONT COLLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HABERSHAM COUNTY MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HABERSHAM CO AMBULANCE SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #1711Brownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Demorest'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 Demorest.
Total Sites
232
within ~10 miles of Demorest
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Demorest
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Demorest
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Demorest, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Demorest — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (176 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Demorest
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 Demorest average
Your land is one point inside Demorest
Everything above resolves to Demorest as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Demorest Average
Demorest Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Demorest
- ●One soil character for all of Demorest
- ●Frost dates read at Demorest's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Demorest's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Demorest
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Demorest, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Demorest averages can't show:
We read public map data around Demorest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Demorest average
How we know this about Demorest
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 Demorest’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 Demorest
When does frost risk typically end in Demorest?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Demorest 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 Demorest?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Demorest typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Demorest?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Demorest sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 1, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Demorest?
The federal record around Demorest is a meaningful one — 232 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (176), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Demorest?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Demorest's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Demorest'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 Demorest’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Demorest's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,436 acres it covers and 232 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Demorest's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Demorest's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 15 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 232 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Demorest, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Demorest's boundary and the 1,436 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Demorest's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Demorest's 1,436 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Habersham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Habersham 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 Habersham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Demorest's 1,436 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Demorest you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,436 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Demorest-wide figureread your own land →
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