Fargo, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Fargo, 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 Fargo 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 Fargo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fargo — the short answer
Fargo, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Clinch County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Clinch County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Clinch County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Clinch County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Fargo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fargo's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fargo
Each reading below is measured for Fargo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFargo runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Clinch County, the closest normal to Fargo) — 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
MeasuredFargo 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 Fargo is in
Fargo sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fargo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clinch County.
What Grows in Fargo
Every plant below cleared Fargo's own zone 9a and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fargo?
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 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 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Fargo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fargo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GA DOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GA FC-CLINCH CO UNITUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SUPERIOR PINE PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- OKEFENOKEE NWRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 25D001Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- SWAMP FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AT&TUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FOREST MOTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CLOSED QUICK CHANGE #84Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SHERYLANN GIBBSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- QUICK CHANGE #84Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
3 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fargo'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 Fargo.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fargo
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Fargo
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 Fargo average
Your land is one point inside Fargo
Everything above resolves to Fargo as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clinch County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Fargo Average
Fargo Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Fargo
- ●One soil character for all of Fargo
- ●Frost dates read at Fargo's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fargo's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fargo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fargo, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fargo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fargo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fargo average
How we know this about Fargo
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 Clinch 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 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 Fargo
When does frost risk typically end in Fargo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fargo 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 Fargo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fargo typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fargo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fargo sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 18, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fargo?
The federal record around Fargo is light — 17 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fargo?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fargo's scale — its 9a band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fargo'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 Fargo’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fargo's own scale — the 1,756 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fargo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fargo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fargo's boundary and the 1,756 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fargo's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fargo has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clinch County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fargo's 1,756 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinch County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinch 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 Clinch County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fargo's 1,756 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fargo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,756 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 Fargo-wide figureread your own land →