Leslie, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Leslie, 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 Leslie 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 Leslie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leslie — the short answer
Leslie, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Sumter County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Leslie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leslie's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leslie
Each reading below is measured for Leslie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLeslie runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Sumter County, the closest normal to Leslie) — 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
MeasuredLeslie sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Leslie is in
Leslie sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leslie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sumter County.
What Grows in Leslie
Every plant below cleared Leslie's own zone 8b and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leslie?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — 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 Leslie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leslie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITIZENS TELEPHONE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 13P001Nitrate · 500 ft
- LESLIE QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LESLIE BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- LESLIE CITY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SHARP SYSTEMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FORMER UNION HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LESLIE PEANUT CO (CARGILL)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CLARK BASS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- GOLD KISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SHILOTT DUSTING SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- 13Q051Nitrate · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leslie'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 Leslie.
Total Sites
174
within ~10 miles of Leslie
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leslie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leslie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leslie, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 128 sites within ~10 miles of Leslie. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Leslie
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 Leslie average
Your land is one point inside Leslie
Everything above resolves to Leslie as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sumter 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 Leslie Average
Leslie Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Leslie
- ●One soil character for all of Leslie
- ●Frost dates read at Leslie's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leslie's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leslie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leslie, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leslie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leslie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leslie average
How we know this about Leslie
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 Sumter 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 Leslie
When does frost risk typically end in Leslie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leslie typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Leslie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leslie typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leslie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leslie sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 20, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leslie?
The federal record around Leslie shows 174 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (128), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Leslie?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leslie's scale — its 8b band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leslie'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 Leslie’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Leslie's own scale — the 1,133 acres it covers and 174 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leslie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 174 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leslie, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leslie's boundary and the 1,133 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leslie's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Leslie has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sumter County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leslie's 1,133 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sumter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sumter 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 Sumter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leslie's 1,133 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leslie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,133 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 Leslie-wide figureread your own land →
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