Holly Springs, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Holly Springs, 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 Holly Springs 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 Holly Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Holly Springs — the short answer
Holly Springs, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 8a is Holly Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holly Springs's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Holly Springs
Each reading below is measured for Holly Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHolly Springs runs about 252 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
MeasuredHolly Springs 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 Holly Springs is in
Holly Springs sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Holly Springs's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cherokee County is mostly Blue Ridge. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Holly Springs
Every plant below cleared Holly Springs's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Holly Springs?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Holly Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Holly Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NOR-RAL, INC.Brownfields · 1400 ft
- INNOVATIVE FRAGRANCESBrownfields · 1700 ft
- HOLLY SPRINGS FRUIT STANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HYDRO-CHEMToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- IFT HOLDING CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- HYDRO-CHEM DIV/PRO-QUIP CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CHEROKEE BOE BUSSHOP 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- THOMAS CONCRETE OF GA INC-CANTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- THOMAS CONCRETE OF GEORGIA, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- HICKORY RD MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HWY 575 TRACTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Holly Springs'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 Holly Springs.
Total Sites
465
within ~10 miles of Holly Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Holly Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Holly Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Holly Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Holly Springs — Superfund (13 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (31 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Holly Springs
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 Holly Springs average
Your land is one point inside Holly Springs
Everything above resolves to Holly Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Holly Springs Average
Holly Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Holly Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Holly Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Holly Springs's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holly Springs's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Holly Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holly Springs, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holly Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holly Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holly Springs average
How we know this about Holly Springs
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 Holly Springs’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 Holly Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Holly Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holly Springs typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 4.
When is the first frost in Holly Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Holly Springs typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Holly Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holly Springs sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 7, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holly Springs?
The federal record around Holly Springs is a meaningful one — 465 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (293), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Holly Springs?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Holly Springs's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holly Springs'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 Holly Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Holly Springs's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,689 acres it covers and 465 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holly Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Holly Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 21 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 465 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Holly Springs, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Holly Springs's boundary and the 4,689 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Holly Springs sits in the Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Holly Springs's 4,689 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cherokee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cherokee 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 Cherokee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Holly Springs's 4,689 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Holly Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,689 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Holly Springs-wide figureread your own land →