Ila, 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 Ila, 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 Ila 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 Ila — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ila — the short answer
Ila, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 493 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- Madison County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Madison County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- Madison County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 493 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 Madison County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Ila's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ila's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ila
Each reading below is measured for Ila itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsIla runs about 255 days between hard freezes (read from Madison County, the closest normal to Ila) — 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
MeasuredIla 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 Ila is in
Ila sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ila's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Ila
Every plant below cleared Ila's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ila?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Ila
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ila. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 19HH01Nitrate · 200 ft
- AT&T POCATALIGO RADIO RELAY STATUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- GA DOT ROWUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- THE SPECIAL STORE INC/PICK OF THUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MARKET ON MAIN ILA CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- FORMER GULF STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- NO FACILITY NAMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- MOUNTAIN EXPRESS OIL #35Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ADAMS CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- POCI GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- ALLTEL GA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- BILL CAREY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ila'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 Ila.
Total Sites
100
within ~10 miles of Ila
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ila
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ila
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ila, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of Ila. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ila
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 Ila average
Your land is one point inside Ila
Everything above resolves to Ila as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 493 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Madison 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 Ila Average
Ila Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ila
- ●One soil character for all of Ila
- ●Frost dates read at Ila's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ila's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ila
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ila, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ila averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ila — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ila average
How we know this about Ila
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 Madison 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 Ila
When does frost risk typically end in Ila?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ila typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Ila?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ila typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ila?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ila sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 8, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ila?
The federal record around Ila is a meaningful one — 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ila?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ila's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ila'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 Ila’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ila's own scale — the 493 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ila's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ila, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ila's boundary and the 493 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ila's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ila has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Madison County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ila's 493 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ila's 493 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ila you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 493 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ila-wide figureread your own land →
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