Mount Airy, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mount Airy, 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 Mount Airy 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 Mount Airy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Airy — the short answer
Mount Airy, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Mount Airy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Airy's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Airy
Each reading below is measured for Mount Airy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Airy runs about 247 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMount Airy sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Mount Airy is in
Mount Airy sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Airy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Habersham County.
What Grows in Mount Airy
Every plant below cleared Mount Airy's own zone 8a and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Airy?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Mount Airy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Airy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE RUSSELL CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 123 WHOLESALE TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MOUNT AIRY EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- JOE NIXUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HABERSHAM CO EMERGENCY MGMT AGENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- STANDARD TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DANS PAINTINGBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- CORNELIA VENEER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MOUNT AIRY WOOD PRESERVINGBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- CAIN FORD LINCOLN MERCURYBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- MOUNTAIN EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Airy'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 Mount Airy.
Total Sites
265
within ~10 miles of Mount Airy
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Airy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Airy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Airy, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mount Airy — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (200 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Mount Airy
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 Mount Airy average
Your land is one point inside Mount Airy
Everything above resolves to Mount Airy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K acres. 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 town 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 Mount Airy Average
Mount Airy Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Mount Airy
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Airy
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Airy's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Airy's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Airy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Airy, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Airy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Airy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Airy average
How we know this about Mount Airy
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Mount Airy’s own record; 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Mount Airy
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Airy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Airy typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 6.
When is the first frost in Mount Airy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Airy typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Airy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Airy sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 4, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Airy?
The federal record around Mount Airy is a meaningful one — 265 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (200), 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 Mount Airy?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Airy's scale — its 8a band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Airy'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 Mount Airy’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mount Airy's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,546 acres it covers and 265 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Airy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Airy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 18 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 265 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Airy, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Airy's boundary and the 1,546 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Airy's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Airy's 1,546 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Habersham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Habersham 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 Habersham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Airy's 1,546 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Airy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,546 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 Mount Airy-wide figureread your own land →
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