Mansfield, 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.
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 Mansfield, 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 Mansfield 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 Mansfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mansfield — the short answer
Mansfield, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 719 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- Newton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Newton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Newton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 719 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 Newton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Mansfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mansfield's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mansfield
Each reading below is measured for Mansfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMansfield runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Newton County, the closest normal to Mansfield) — 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
MeasuredMansfield 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 Mansfield is in
Mansfield sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mansfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Newton County.
What Grows in Mansfield
Every plant below cleared Mansfield's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mansfield?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (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. 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 Mansfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mansfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 16CC24Nitrate · 25 ft
- BEAVER MANUFACTURING CO INCBrownfields · 100 ft
- BEAVER MANUFACTURING CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 100 ft
- CHARLES ELLIOTT WILDLIFE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MANSFIELD CONVENIENCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- AMERICAN AGRIVEST INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- QUIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- CITY OF NEWBORNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- NEWTON AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- NEWBORN CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- POLK SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PONY EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mansfield'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 Mansfield.
Total Sites
251
within ~10 miles of Mansfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mansfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mansfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mansfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mansfield — Toxics Release Inventory (34 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Mansfield
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 Mansfield average
Your land is one point inside Mansfield
Everything above resolves to Mansfield as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 719 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Newton 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 Mansfield Average
Mansfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Mansfield
- ●One soil character for all of Mansfield
- ●Frost dates read at Mansfield's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mansfield's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mansfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mansfield, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mansfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mansfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mansfield average
How we know this about Mansfield
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 Newton 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 Mansfield
When does frost risk typically end in Mansfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mansfield typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Mansfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mansfield 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 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mansfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mansfield sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 12, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mansfield?
The federal record around Mansfield is a meaningful one — 251 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (163), the nearest Nitrate 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 Mansfield?
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 Mansfield's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mansfield'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 Mansfield’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mansfield's own scale — the 719 acres it covers and 251 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mansfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 251 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mansfield, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mansfield's boundary and the 719 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mansfield's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mansfield has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Newton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mansfield's 719 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Newton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Newton 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 Newton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mansfield's 719 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mansfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 719 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Mansfield-wide figureread your own land →
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