Homeland, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — 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 — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Homeland, 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 Homeland 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 Homeland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Homeland — the short answer
Homeland, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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
- 2K 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 Homeland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Homeland's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Homeland
Each reading below is measured for Homeland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHomeland runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Charlton County, the closest normal to Homeland) — 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
MeasuredHomeland 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 Homeland is in
Homeland sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Homeland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Charlton County.
What Grows in Homeland
Every plant below cleared Homeland'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 Homeland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. 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 Homeland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Homeland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OKEFENOKEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FRIENDLEY EXPRESS #31Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- UNION CAMP/OKEFONOKEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- GA DOT 10518 CHARLTON CO ROUTINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FLASH FOODS #122Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER-FOLKSTON LUMBERToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- UNION CAMP CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MCIUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GREEN CEDAR #17Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHWELL TIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- JOHNSON MEAT MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KENS CHEVRON SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Homeland'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 Homeland.
Total Sites
64
within ~10 miles of Homeland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Homeland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Homeland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Homeland, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 47 sites within ~10 miles of Homeland. 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 Homeland
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 Homeland average
Your land is one point inside Homeland
Everything above resolves to Homeland as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K 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 Homeland Average
Homeland Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Homeland
- ●One soil character for all of Homeland
- ●Frost dates read at Homeland's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Homeland's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Homeland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Homeland, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Homeland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Homeland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Homeland average
How we know this about Homeland
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 Homeland
When does frost risk typically end in Homeland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Homeland 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 Homeland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Homeland 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 Homeland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Homeland 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 Homeland?
The federal record around Homeland shows 64 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Homeland?
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 Homeland's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Homeland'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 Homeland’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Homeland's own scale — the 1,599 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Homeland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Homeland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Homeland's boundary and the 1,599 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 Homeland's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Homeland 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 Homeland's 1,599 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 Homeland's 1,599 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Homeland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,599 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Homeland-wide figureread your own land →
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