Jekyll Island, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Jekyll Island, 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 Jekyll Island 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 Jekyll Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Jekyll Island — the short answer
Jekyll Island, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 303 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Glynn County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Glynn County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~303
- Glynn County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Glynn County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Jekyll Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jekyll Island's 303-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jekyll Island
Each reading below is measured for Jekyll Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsJekyll Island runs about 303 days between hard freezes (read from Glynn County, the closest normal to Jekyll Island) — 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
MeasuredJekyll Island 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 Jekyll Island is in
Jekyll Island sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jekyll Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Glynn County.
What Grows in Jekyll Island
Every plant below cleared Jekyll Island's own zone 9a and its 303-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jekyll Island?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — 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 Jekyll Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jekyll Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JEKYLL ISLAND/NEW MAINTENANCE ARUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BELLSOUTH TELECOMMUNICATIONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 34G031Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- JEKYLL ISLAND/AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JEKYLL ISLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JEKYLL ISLAND/VEHICLE MAINT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JEKYLL ISLAND/MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JEKYLL ISLAND/CHRISTMAS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LITTLE CUMBERLAND ISLAND HOME OWUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JEKYLL ISLAND/PATROL & WELCOME CUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- JEKYLL ISLAND FINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FLASH FOODS #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jekyll Island'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 Jekyll Island.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jekyll Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jekyll Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jekyll Island, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Jekyll Island — Nitrate (258 sites) and Superfund (8 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Jekyll Island
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 Jekyll Island average
Your land is one point inside Jekyll Island
Everything above resolves to Jekyll Island as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Glynn 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 Jekyll Island Average
Jekyll Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Jekyll Island
- ●One soil character for all of Jekyll Island
- ●Frost dates read at Jekyll Island's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jekyll Island's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jekyll Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jekyll Island, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jekyll Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jekyll Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jekyll Island average
How we know this about Jekyll Island
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 Glynn 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 Jekyll Island
When does frost risk typically end in Jekyll Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jekyll Island typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Jekyll Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jekyll Island typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 303 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jekyll Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jekyll Island sees about 303 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 27, about 268 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jekyll Island?
The federal record around Jekyll Island is a meaningful one — 509 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (258), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Jekyll Island?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jekyll Island's scale — its 9a band and its 303-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jekyll Island'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 Jekyll Island’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Jekyll Island's own scale — the 5,752 acres it covers and 509 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jekyll Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 509 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jekyll Island, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jekyll Island's boundary and the 5,752 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~303-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jekyll Island's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Jekyll Island has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Glynn County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jekyll Island's 5,752 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Glynn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Glynn 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 Glynn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jekyll Island's 5,752 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jekyll Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,752 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Jekyll Island-wide figureread your own land →
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