Fort Gaines, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Fort Gaines, 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 Fort Gaines 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 Fort Gaines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fort Gaines — the short answer
Fort Gaines, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- Clay 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 Clay County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Fort Gaines's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Gaines's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Gaines
Each reading below is measured for Fort Gaines itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFort Gaines runs about 287 days between hard freezes (read from Clay County, the closest normal to Fort Gaines) — 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
MeasuredFort Gaines sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Fort Gaines is in
Fort Gaines sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Gaines's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Fort Gaines
Every plant below cleared Fort Gaines's own zone 8b and its 287-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Gaines?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Fort Gaines
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Gaines. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 05L004Nitrate · 2100 ft
- U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS W F GEORGE LAKEToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- H & K FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GEORGIA GAINT FOODS OF FT GAINES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GEORGIA GIANT FOOD #334Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 05L003Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- FORMER PATULA POINT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- COLEMAN'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- FT GAINES ICE HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- FORMERLY GRAHAM TIMBER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CROWN GA-553/ZIPPY MART 522Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BC BROWN SVC STA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Gaines'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 Fort Gaines.
Total Sites
42
within ~10 miles of Fort Gaines
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Gaines
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Gaines
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Gaines, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort Gaines — CAFO (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (28 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Fort Gaines
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 Fort Gaines average
Your land is one point inside Fort Gaines
Everything above resolves to Fort Gaines as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clay 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 Fort Gaines Average
Fort Gaines Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Fort Gaines
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Gaines
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Gaines's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Gaines's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Gaines
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Gaines, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Gaines averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Gaines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Gaines average
How we know this about Fort Gaines
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 Clay 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 Fort Gaines
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Gaines?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Gaines typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Fort Gaines?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Gaines typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 287 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Gaines?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Gaines sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 17, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Gaines?
The federal record around Fort Gaines is light — 42 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (28), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Fort Gaines?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Gaines's scale — its 8b band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Gaines'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 Fort Gaines’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fort Gaines's own scale — the 3,056 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Gaines's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Gaines, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Gaines's boundary and the 3,056 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Gaines's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fort Gaines has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clay County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Gaines's 3,056 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Gaines's 3,056 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Gaines you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,056 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Fort Gaines-wide figureread your own land →
More in Georgia
Wider growing context
What grows across GeorgiaFort Gaines sits outside our named growing regions, so Georgia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides