Lyons, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lyons, 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 Lyons 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 Lyons — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lyons — the short answer
Lyons, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 294 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Toombs County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Toombs County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~294
- Toombs County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Toombs County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Lyons's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lyons's 294-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lyons
Each reading below is measured for Lyons itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLyons runs about 294 days between hard freezes (read from Toombs County, the closest normal to Lyons) — 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
MeasuredLyons sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Lyons is in
Lyons sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lyons's own centroid rather than borrowed from Toombs County.
What Grows in Lyons
Every plant below cleared Lyons's own zone 9a and its 294-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lyons?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — 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 Lyons
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lyons. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALBERT MEDDERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- SOUTHERN OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ARNG/CO C 878TH ENGR BN (CBT HVYUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- DERST BAKING CO WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- US POSTAL SERVICE/MAIN POST OFFIUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- WILSON 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- AUTO TRUCK WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PANTRY SHELFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CHARLES NOBLESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BST/LYNSGAMA R2519Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- B AND J MINIT MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- LYONS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lyons'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 Lyons.
Total Sites
171
within ~10 miles of Lyons
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lyons
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lyons
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lyons, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 138 sites within ~10 miles of Lyons. 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 Lyons
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 Lyons average
Your land is one point inside Lyons
Everything above resolves to Lyons as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Toombs 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 Lyons Average
Lyons Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lyons
- ●One soil character for all of Lyons
- ●Frost dates read at Lyons's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lyons's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lyons
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lyons, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lyons averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lyons — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lyons average
How we know this about Lyons
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 Toombs 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 Lyons
When does frost risk typically end in Lyons?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lyons typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Lyons?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lyons typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 294 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lyons?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lyons sees about 294 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 23, about 259 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lyons?
The federal record around Lyons is a meaningful one — 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (138), 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 Lyons?
From about Nov 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lyons's scale — its 9a band and its 294-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lyons'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 Lyons’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lyons's own scale — the 5,387 acres it covers and 171 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lyons's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 171 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lyons, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lyons's boundary and the 5,387 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~294-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lyons's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lyons has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Toombs County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lyons's 5,387 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Toombs County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Toombs 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 Toombs County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lyons's 5,387 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lyons you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,387 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 Lyons-wide figureread your own land →
More in Georgia
Growing region
Nearby growing guides