Milledgeville, 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 Milledgeville, 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 Milledgeville 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 Milledgeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Milledgeville — the short answer
Milledgeville, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 13K 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 Baldwin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Milledgeville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milledgeville's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milledgeville
Each reading below is measured for Milledgeville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMilledgeville runs about 269 days between hard freezes (read from Baldwin County, the closest normal to Milledgeville) — 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
MeasuredMilledgeville 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 Milledgeville is in
Milledgeville sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Milledgeville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Baldwin County.
What Grows in Milledgeville
Every plant below cleared Milledgeville's own zone 8b and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Milledgeville?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 25 — 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 Milledgeville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milledgeville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE MARKET PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- VACANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FOREMOST CLEANERSSuperfund · 1600 ft
- MAC JOHNSON GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- KANGS STOP N SHOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DOUBLE SIX OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #4565Brownfields · 1800 ft
- PROTECTIVE CLEANERSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- FORMER LYLE'S TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- STOP N SAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- NAVICENT HEALTH OCONEE, LLCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- OCONEE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Milledgeville'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 Milledgeville.
Total Sites
209
within ~10 miles of Milledgeville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Milledgeville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milledgeville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Milledgeville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Milledgeville — Underground Storage Tanks (164 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Milledgeville
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 Milledgeville average
Your land is one point inside Milledgeville
Everything above resolves to Milledgeville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 13K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Baldwin 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 Milledgeville Average
Milledgeville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Milledgeville
- ●One soil character for all of Milledgeville
- ●Frost dates read at Milledgeville's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milledgeville's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milledgeville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milledgeville, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milledgeville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milledgeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milledgeville average
How we know this about Milledgeville
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 Baldwin 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 Milledgeville
When does frost risk typically end in Milledgeville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milledgeville 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 Milledgeville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milledgeville typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Milledgeville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milledgeville sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 11, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Milledgeville?
The federal record around Milledgeville is a meaningful one — 209 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (164), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Milledgeville?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Milledgeville's scale — its 8b band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milledgeville'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 Milledgeville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Milledgeville's own scale — the 12,966 acres it covers and 209 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milledgeville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 209 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milledgeville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milledgeville's boundary and the 12,966 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Milledgeville's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Milledgeville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Baldwin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Milledgeville's 12,966 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baldwin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baldwin 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 Baldwin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Milledgeville's 12,966 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milledgeville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,966 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Milledgeville-wide figureread your own land →
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