Mount Zion, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Mount Zion, 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 Zion 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 Zion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Zion — the short answer
Mount Zion, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Zion's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Zion's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Zion
Each reading below is measured for Mount Zion itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Zion runs about 241 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 Zion 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 Zion is in
Mount Zion sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Zion's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carroll County.
What Grows in Mount Zion
Every plant below cleared Mount Zion's own zone 8a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Zion?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Mount Zion
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Zion. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EAGLES LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MT ZION ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CITY OF MT ZIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EAGLES NESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WEST GEORGIA REGIONAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- STATE PARK SHOPPETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- NORTONS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- WALLACE BUILDERS SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- BOWDON JUNCTION QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- HIGH POINT GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- WACO GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- SPECIALTY CONCRETE PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Zion'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 Zion.
Total Sites
393
within ~10 miles of Mount Zion
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Zion
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Zion
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Zion, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mount Zion — Toxics Release Inventory (37 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (281 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Mount Zion
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 Zion average
Your land is one point inside Mount Zion
Everything above resolves to Mount Zion as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 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 Mount Zion Average
Mount Zion Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Mount Zion
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Zion
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Zion's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Zion's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Zion
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Zion, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Zion averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Zion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Zion average
How we know this about Mount Zion
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 Mount Zion’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 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 Mount Zion
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Zion?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Zion typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Mount Zion?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Zion typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Zion?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Zion sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 1, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Zion?
The federal record around Mount Zion is a meaningful one — 393 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (281), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Zion?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Zion's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Zion'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 Zion’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mount Zion's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,212 acres it covers and 393 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Zion's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Zion's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 15 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 393 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Zion, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Zion's boundary and the 6,212 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Zion's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Zion's 6,212 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carroll County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carroll 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 Carroll County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Zion's 6,212 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Zion you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,212 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Zion-wide figureread your own land →
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