Hiawassee, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hiawassee, 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 Hiawassee 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 Hiawassee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hiawassee — the short answer
Hiawassee, Georgia: USDA zone 7a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- 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 7a is Hiawassee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hiawassee's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hiawassee
Each reading below is measured for Hiawassee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHiawassee runs about 206 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
MeasuredHiawassee sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Hiawassee is in
Hiawassee sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hiawassee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Towns County.
What Grows in Hiawassee
Every plant below cleared Hiawassee's own zone 7a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hiawassee?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Hiawassee
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hiawassee checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hiawassee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hiawassee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIRCLE M FOOD SHOP #9Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Berrong Prospect (Johnson Copper Prospect)Mining · 1900 ft
- HIRWASSEE FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WALGREENS #18402Brownfields · 2200 ft
- CHATUGE REGIONAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 2300 ft
- CHATUGE REGIONAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GOLDEN PANTRY #11Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ONE STOP MARINA (LEES DOCK)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TOWNS CO BD OF EDUCATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TOWNS COUNTY MAINT (OLD HIWASSEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- THE iMARKET #783Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LAKEVIEW STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hiawassee'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 Hiawassee.
Total Sites
104
within ~10 miles of Hiawassee
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hiawassee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hiawassee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hiawassee, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 86 sites within ~10 miles of Hiawassee. 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 Hiawassee
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 Hiawassee average
Your land is one point inside Hiawassee
Everything above resolves to Hiawassee 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 Hiawassee Average
Hiawassee Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Hiawassee
- ●One soil character for all of Hiawassee
- ●Frost dates read at Hiawassee's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hiawassee's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hiawassee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hiawassee, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hiawassee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hiawassee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hiawassee average
How we know this about Hiawassee
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 Hiawassee’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 Hiawassee
When does frost risk typically end in Hiawassee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hiawassee typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Hiawassee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hiawassee typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hiawassee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hiawassee sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 15, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hiawassee?
The federal record around Hiawassee shows 104 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Hiawassee?
From about Sep 29 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 Oct 29 (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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hiawassee's scale — its 7a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hiawassee'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 Hiawassee’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hiawassee's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,043 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hiawassee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hiawassee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 29 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hiawassee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hiawassee's boundary and the 1,043 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hiawassee's own centroid, the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hiawassee checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hiawassee's 1,043 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Towns County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Towns 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 Towns County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hiawassee's 1,043 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hiawassee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,043 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Hiawassee-wide figureread your own land →