Folkston, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Folkston, 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 Folkston 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 Folkston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Folkston — the short answer
Folkston, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Charlton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Charlton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- Charlton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Charlton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Folkston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Folkston's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Folkston
Each reading below is measured for Folkston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFolkston runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Charlton County, the closest normal to Folkston) — 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
MeasuredFolkston 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 Folkston is in
Folkston sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Folkston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Charlton County.
What Grows in Folkston
Every plant below cleared Folkston's own zone 9a and its 298-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Folkston?
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 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Folkston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Folkston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OM FOOD MART - JASUI #2Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CHARLTON CO SCHOOL/BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WALGREENS #19997Brownfields · 2200 ft
- FOLKSTON AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- FLASH FOODS #35Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 29E005Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- SOUTHWELL TIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- JOHNSON MEAT MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KENS CHEVRON SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FRIENDLY EXPRESS #31Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HOPKINS-GOWEN OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HOSPITAL AUTHORITY OF CHARLTON CUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Folkston'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 Folkston.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of Folkston
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Folkston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Folkston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Folkston, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 49 sites within ~10 miles of Folkston. 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 Folkston
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 Folkston average
Your land is one point inside Folkston
Everything above resolves to Folkston as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Charlton 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 Folkston Average
Folkston Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Folkston
- ●One soil character for all of Folkston
- ●Frost dates read at Folkston's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Folkston's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Folkston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Folkston, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Folkston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Folkston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Folkston average
How we know this about Folkston
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 Charlton 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 Folkston
When does frost risk typically end in Folkston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Folkston 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 Folkston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Folkston typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 298 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Folkston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Folkston sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 25, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Folkston?
The federal record around Folkston shows 66 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Folkston?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Folkston's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Folkston'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 Folkston’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Folkston's own scale — the 2,680 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Folkston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Folkston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Folkston's boundary and the 2,680 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~298-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Folkston's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Folkston has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Charlton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Folkston's 2,680 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Charlton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Charlton 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 Charlton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Folkston's 2,680 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Folkston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,680 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 Folkston-wide figureread your own land →
More in Georgia
Growing region