Mountain Park, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mountain Park, 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 Mountain Park 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 Mountain Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mountain Park — the short answer
Mountain Park, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Gwinnett County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Gwinnett County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- Gwinnett County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Gwinnett County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Mountain Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mountain Park's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mountain Park
Each reading below is measured for Mountain Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMountain Park runs about 265 days between hard freezes (read from Gwinnett County, the closest normal to Mountain Park) — 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
MeasuredMountain Park 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 Mountain Park is in
Mountain Park sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mountain Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gwinnett County.
What Grows in Mountain Park
Every plant below cleared Mountain Park's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mountain Park?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Mountain Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mountain Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KROGER GA #449Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- NAHIGIAN PROPERTIES INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- KROGER 449-11Brownfields · 1600 ft
- KROGER GA-449Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TEXACO FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SHELL FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WALGREENS 7608Brownfields · 2400 ft
- GWINNETT PARTNERS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SIMS 205 MOUNTAIN PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ALPINE SITESuperfund · 1.0 mi
- MOUNTAIN PARK ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LILBURN MERCURY SPILLSuperfund · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mountain Park'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 Mountain Park.
Total Sites
1,779
within ~10 miles of Mountain Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
21 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mountain Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mountain Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mountain Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mountain Park — Toxics Release Inventory (153 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (1,177 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 Mountain Park
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 Mountain Park average
Your land is one point inside Mountain Park
Everything above resolves to Mountain Park as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Gwinnett County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Mountain Park Average
Mountain Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Mountain Park
- ●One soil character for all of Mountain Park
- ●Frost dates read at Mountain Park's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mountain Park's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mountain Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mountain Park, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mountain Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mountain Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mountain Park average
How we know this about Mountain Park
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 Gwinnett 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 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 Mountain Park
When does frost risk typically end in Mountain Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Park typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Mountain Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Park typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mountain Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mountain Park sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 15, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mountain Park?
The federal record around Mountain Park is a meaningful one — 1,779 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,177), 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 Mountain Park?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mountain Park's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mountain Park'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 Mountain Park’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mountain Park's own scale — the 3,707 acres it covers and 1,779 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mountain Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,779 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mountain Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mountain Park's boundary and the 3,707 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mountain Park's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mountain Park has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Gwinnett County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mountain Park's 3,707 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gwinnett County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gwinnett 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 Gwinnett County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mountain Park's 3,707 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mountain Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,707 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 Mountain Park-wide figureread your own land →
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