Lyerly, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lyerly, 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 Lyerly 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 Lyerly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lyerly — the short answer
Lyerly, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 481 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 481 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 Lyerly's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lyerly's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lyerly
Each reading below is measured for Lyerly itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLyerly runs about 232 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
MeasuredLyerly 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 Lyerly is in
Lyerly sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lyerly's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chattooga County.
What Grows in Lyerly
Every plant below cleared Lyerly's own zone 8a and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lyerly?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Lyerly
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lyerly. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- K & W OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BJS FOOD MART #4Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- 02KK01Nitrate · 1100 ft
- 02KK05Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- MOHAWK INDUSTRIES LYERLY PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- 02KK02Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- DELBERT PATTY/PATTY'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- RAGLAND'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- CHATTOOGA STEELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- LYERLY RUGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- MOHAWK INDUSTRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- TADDY'S COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lyerly'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 Lyerly.
Total Sites
113
within ~10 miles of Lyerly
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lyerly
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lyerly
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lyerly, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lyerly — CAFO (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (72 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lyerly
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 Lyerly average
Your land is one point inside Lyerly
Everything above resolves to Lyerly as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 481 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 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 Lyerly Average
Lyerly Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lyerly
- ●One soil character for all of Lyerly
- ●Frost dates read at Lyerly's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lyerly's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lyerly
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lyerly, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lyerly averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lyerly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lyerly average
How we know this about Lyerly
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 Lyerly’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 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 Lyerly
When does frost risk typically end in Lyerly?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lyerly typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Lyerly?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lyerly typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lyerly?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lyerly sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 26, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lyerly?
The federal record around Lyerly is a meaningful one — 113 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (72), 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 Lyerly?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lyerly's scale — its 8a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lyerly'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 Lyerly’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lyerly's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 481 acres it covers and 113 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lyerly's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lyerly's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 9 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 113 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lyerly, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lyerly's boundary and the 481 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lyerly's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lyerly's 481 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chattooga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chattooga 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 Chattooga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lyerly's 481 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lyerly you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 481 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 Lyerly-wide figureread your own land →
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