Lumpkin, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lumpkin, 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 Lumpkin 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 Lumpkin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lumpkin — the short answer
Lumpkin, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- Stewart County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Stewart County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- Stewart 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 Stewart County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Lumpkin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lumpkin's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lumpkin
Each reading below is measured for Lumpkin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLumpkin runs about 270 days between hard freezes (read from Stewart County, the closest normal to Lumpkin) — 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
MeasuredLumpkin 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 Lumpkin is in
Lumpkin sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lumpkin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stewart County.
What Grows in Lumpkin
Every plant below cleared Lumpkin's own zone 8b and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lumpkin?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Lumpkin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lumpkin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- B&H GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- HESTER LOGGING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- S-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MOCCASIN GAP TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GA FC/STEWART CO UNITUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CHAMPION INT'L CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LUMKIN RADIO RELAY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CHAMPION INTERNATIONALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- T & T SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 07Q002Nitrate · 2000 ft
- STEWART CO SCHOOL BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 07Q001Nitrate · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lumpkin'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 Lumpkin.
Total Sites
52
within ~10 miles of Lumpkin
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lumpkin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lumpkin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lumpkin, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Lumpkin. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Lumpkin
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 Lumpkin average
Your land is one point inside Lumpkin
Everything above resolves to Lumpkin as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Stewart 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 Lumpkin Average
Lumpkin Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Lumpkin
- ●One soil character for all of Lumpkin
- ●Frost dates read at Lumpkin's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lumpkin's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lumpkin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lumpkin, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lumpkin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lumpkin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lumpkin average
How we know this about Lumpkin
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 Stewart 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 Lumpkin
When does frost risk typically end in Lumpkin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lumpkin typically lands around Mar 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Lumpkin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lumpkin typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lumpkin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lumpkin sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 12, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lumpkin?
The federal record around Lumpkin shows 52 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Lumpkin?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lumpkin's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lumpkin'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 Lumpkin’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lumpkin's own scale — the 1,011 acres it covers and 52 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lumpkin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 52 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lumpkin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lumpkin's boundary and the 1,011 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lumpkin's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lumpkin has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Stewart County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lumpkin's 1,011 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stewart County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stewart 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 Stewart County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lumpkin's 1,011 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lumpkin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,011 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Lumpkin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Georgia
Wider growing context
What grows across GeorgiaLumpkin sits outside our named growing regions, so Georgia as a whole is its closest context here.