Kennesaw, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kennesaw, 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 Kennesaw 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 Kennesaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kennesaw — the short answer
Kennesaw, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 6K 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
- 6K 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 Kennesaw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kennesaw's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kennesaw
Each reading below is measured for Kennesaw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKennesaw 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
MeasuredKennesaw 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 Kennesaw is in
Kennesaw sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kennesaw's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cobb County.
What Grows in Kennesaw
Every plant below cleared Kennesaw'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 Kennesaw?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Kennesaw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kennesaw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- C W TIRE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- KENNESAW POLICE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- K-M AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LANCE OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CALIBER COLLISION CENTER - KENNESAW - MOON STATION 2335Brownfields · 1600 ft
- CITY OF KENNESAWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- KENNESAW TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- COBB COUNTY FIRE STATION #8Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BIG SHANTY SUPERETTE #8Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CITGO QUIK MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kennesaw'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 Kennesaw.
Total Sites
1,176
within ~10 miles of Kennesaw
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kennesaw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kennesaw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kennesaw, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 770 sites within ~10 miles of Kennesaw. 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 Kennesaw
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 Kennesaw average
Your land is one point inside Kennesaw
Everything above resolves to Kennesaw as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Kennesaw Average
Kennesaw Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Kennesaw
- ●One soil character for all of Kennesaw
- ●Frost dates read at Kennesaw's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kennesaw's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kennesaw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kennesaw, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kennesaw averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kennesaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kennesaw average
How we know this about Kennesaw
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 Kennesaw’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 Kennesaw
When does frost risk typically end in Kennesaw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kennesaw 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 Kennesaw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kennesaw 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 Kennesaw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kennesaw 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 Kennesaw?
The federal record around Kennesaw is a meaningful one — 1,176 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (770), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Kennesaw?
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 Kennesaw's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kennesaw'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 Kennesaw’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kennesaw's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,250 acres it covers and 1,176 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kennesaw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kennesaw's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 21 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,176 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kennesaw, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kennesaw's boundary and the 6,250 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kennesaw's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kennesaw's 6,250 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cobb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cobb 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 Cobb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kennesaw's 6,250 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kennesaw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,250 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 Kennesaw-wide figureread your own land →
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