Hilltop, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Hilltop, 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 Hilltop 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 Hilltop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hilltop — the short answer
Hilltop, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 616 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- Pike County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Pike County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- Pike County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 616 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 Pike County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Hilltop's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hilltop's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hilltop
Each reading below is measured for Hilltop itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHilltop runs about 260 days between hard freezes (read from Pike County, the closest normal to Hilltop) — 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
MeasuredHilltop 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 Hilltop is in
Hilltop sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hilltop's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Hilltop
Every plant below cleared Hilltop's own zone 8a and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hilltop?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Hilltop
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hilltop. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GREENLEAF SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FORMER R F STRICKLAND COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ALLENS STOP IN SHOP #93Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HUNTERS CORNER GREY WOLF INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- LABERGE PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- LOUIS GOVERNOBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- JOHN STRICKLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- TURNERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- 10Z002Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- FRANK FERGUSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- PIKE COUNTY ROAD DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- THE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hilltop'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 Hilltop.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hilltop
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hilltop
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hilltop, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 49 sites within ~10 miles of Hilltop. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Hilltop
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 Hilltop average
Your land is one point inside Hilltop
Everything above resolves to Hilltop as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 616 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pike County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Hilltop Average
Hilltop Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hilltop
- ●One soil character for all of Hilltop
- ●Frost dates read at Hilltop's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hilltop's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hilltop
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hilltop, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hilltop averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hilltop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hilltop average
How we know this about Hilltop
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Pike 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Hilltop
When does frost risk typically end in Hilltop?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hilltop typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Hilltop?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hilltop typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hilltop?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hilltop sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 9, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hilltop?
The federal record around Hilltop shows 66 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Hilltop?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hilltop's scale — its 8a band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hilltop'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 Hilltop’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hilltop's own scale — the 616 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hilltop's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hilltop, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hilltop's boundary and the 616 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hilltop's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hilltop has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pike County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hilltop's 616 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike 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 Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hilltop's 616 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hilltop you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 616 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Hilltop-wide figureread your own land →
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