Milan, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Milan, 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 Milan 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 Milan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Milan — the short answer
Milan, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Telfair County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Telfair County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Telfair County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Telfair County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Milan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milan's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milan
Each reading below is measured for Milan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMilan runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Telfair County, the closest normal to Milan) — 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
MeasuredMilan 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 Milan is in
Milan sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Milan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Telfair County.
What Grows in Milan
Every plant below cleared Milan's own zone 8b and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Milan?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Milan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 21Q006Nitrate · 200 ft
- FLASH FOODS #43Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- ALLTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WATKINS BROS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- STEVERSON'S STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- COUNTRY PRIDE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ELTON ADENS MINIT MARKET #32Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MILAN AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MILAN SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- L A WATKINS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- THUNDERBIRD OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MILAN MOLDED RUBBERToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Milan'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 Milan.
Total Sites
65
within ~10 miles of Milan
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Milan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Milan, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Milan. 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 Milan
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 Milan average
Your land is one point inside Milan
Everything above resolves to Milan as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Telfair 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 Milan Average
Milan Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Milan
- ●One soil character for all of Milan
- ●Frost dates read at Milan's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milan's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milan, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milan average
How we know this about Milan
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 Telfair 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 Milan
When does frost risk typically end in Milan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milan 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 Milan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milan 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 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Milan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milan sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 20, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Milan?
The federal record around Milan shows 65 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Nitrate 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 Milan?
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 Milan's scale — its 8b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milan'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 Milan’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Milan's own scale — the 1,992 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milan, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milan's boundary and the 1,992 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Milan's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Milan has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Telfair County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Milan's 1,992 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Telfair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Telfair 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 Telfair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Milan's 1,992 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,992 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 Milan-wide figureread your own land →
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