Milner, 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 Milner, 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 Milner 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 Milner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Milner — the short answer
Milner, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Lamar County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Milner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milner's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milner
Each reading below is measured for Milner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMilner runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Lamar County, the closest normal to Milner) — 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
MeasuredMilner 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 Milner is in
Milner sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Milner's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lamar County.
What Grows in Milner
Every plant below cleared Milner'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 Milner?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (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 Milner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 12Y001Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- EVANS TIMBER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ENGLISH CLEANING EXPRESS INC DBA SOUTHERN RECOVERY ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- SMITTYS ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- GRAIN CRAFT (BARNESVILLE, GA)Toxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- MILNER MILLING INC/DIXIE PORTLANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- PROCTOR & GAMBLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- LAMAR CO PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- LANGDALE FOREST PRODUCTS CO. BARNESVILLEToxics Release Inventory · 2.6 mi
- LANGDALE FOREST PRODUCTS CO. BARNESVILLEBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- FLASH FOODS #136Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- ENTERPRISE PROPANE TERMINALS & STORAGE LLC - DIXIE MILNER TERMINALBrownfields · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Milner'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 Milner.
Total Sites
217
within ~10 miles of Milner
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Milner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Milner, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Milner — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (20 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Milner
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 Milner average
Your land is one point inside Milner
Everything above resolves to Milner as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lamar 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 Milner Average
Milner Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Milner
- ●One soil character for all of Milner
- ●Frost dates read at Milner's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milner's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milner, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milner average
How we know this about Milner
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 Lamar 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 Milner
When does frost risk typically end in Milner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milner typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Milner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milner 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 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Milner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milner sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 11, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Milner?
The federal record around Milner is a meaningful one — 217 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (145), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Milner?
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 Milner's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milner'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 Milner’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Milner's own scale — the 1,349 acres it covers and 217 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 217 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milner, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milner's boundary and the 1,349 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 Milner's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Milner has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lamar County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Milner's 1,349 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lamar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lamar 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 Lamar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Milner's 1,349 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,349 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Milner-wide figureread your own land →
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