Lawrenceville, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Lawrenceville, 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 Lawrenceville 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 Lawrenceville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lawrenceville — the short answer
Lawrenceville, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Gwinnett County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Gwinnett County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- Gwinnett County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Gwinnett County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Lawrenceville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lawrenceville's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lawrenceville
Each reading below is measured for Lawrenceville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLawrenceville runs about 265 days between hard freezes (read from Gwinnett County, the closest normal to Lawrenceville) — 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
MeasuredLawrenceville 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 Lawrenceville is in
Lawrenceville sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lawrenceville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gwinnett County.
What Grows in Lawrenceville
Every plant below cleared Lawrenceville's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lawrenceville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Lawrenceville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lawrenceville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GWINNETT COUNTY JUSTICE & ADMIN CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- LAWRENCEVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Former Lawrenceville Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CITY OF LAWRENCEVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WALGREENS 5899Brownfields · 1400 ft
- FORMER MUNFORD DRUG STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 14FF09Nitrate · 1600 ft
- SIMS#202Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- EAST CROGAN STREET UST REMOVALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- GULF #267492Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- LAWRENCEVILLE READINESS CENTERBrownfields · 2000 ft
- BST/LAWRENCEVILLE CO/F5618Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lawrenceville'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 Lawrenceville.
Total Sites
974
within ~10 miles of Lawrenceville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lawrenceville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lawrenceville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lawrenceville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Lawrenceville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lawrenceville
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 Lawrenceville average
Your land is one point inside Lawrenceville
Everything above resolves to Lawrenceville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Gwinnett 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 Lawrenceville Average
Lawrenceville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lawrenceville
- ●One soil character for all of Lawrenceville
- ●Frost dates read at Lawrenceville's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lawrenceville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lawrenceville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lawrenceville, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lawrenceville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lawrenceville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lawrenceville average
How we know this about Lawrenceville
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 Gwinnett 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 Lawrenceville
When does frost risk typically end in Lawrenceville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lawrenceville typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Lawrenceville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lawrenceville typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lawrenceville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lawrenceville sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 15, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lawrenceville?
The federal record around Lawrenceville is a meaningful one — 974 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (596), 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 Lawrenceville?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lawrenceville's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lawrenceville'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 Lawrenceville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lawrenceville's own scale — the 8,831 acres it covers and 974 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lawrenceville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 974 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lawrenceville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lawrenceville's boundary and the 8,831 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lawrenceville's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lawrenceville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Gwinnett County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lawrenceville's 8,831 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gwinnett County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gwinnett 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 Gwinnett County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lawrenceville's 8,831 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lawrenceville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,831 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 Lawrenceville-wide figureread your own land →
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