Norwood, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Norwood, 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 Norwood 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 Norwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Norwood — the short answer
Norwood, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 521 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- Warren County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Warren County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- Warren County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 521 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 Warren County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Norwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Norwood's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Norwood
Each reading below is measured for Norwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNorwood runs about 261 days between hard freezes (read from Warren County, the closest normal to Norwood) — 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
MeasuredNorwood 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 Norwood is in
Norwood sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Norwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Warren County.
What Grows in Norwood
Every plant below cleared Norwood's own zone 8b and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Norwood?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Norwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Norwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCIUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- NORWOOD MERCANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- USA FUEL NORWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- WILLIAM (BILLY) QUINNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DAN BOWDOINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- GC GRIFFIN GROCERY SVC STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 23BB01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- KNOX RIVERS ASPHALT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- SOUTHERN LUMBER SPECIALTIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- CAMAK TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- 24BB04Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- W F WILHOITUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Norwood'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 Norwood.
Total Sites
64
within ~10 miles of Norwood
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Norwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Norwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Norwood, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Norwood. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Norwood
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 Norwood average
Your land is one point inside Norwood
Everything above resolves to Norwood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 521 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Warren 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 Norwood Average
Norwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Norwood
- ●One soil character for all of Norwood
- ●Frost dates read at Norwood's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Norwood's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Norwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Norwood, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Norwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Norwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Norwood average
How we know this about Norwood
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 Warren 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 Norwood
When does frost risk typically end in Norwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Norwood typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Norwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Norwood typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Norwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Norwood sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 9, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Norwood?
The federal record around Norwood shows 64 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (39), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Norwood?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Norwood's scale — its 8b band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Norwood'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 Norwood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Norwood's own scale — the 521 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Norwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Norwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Norwood's boundary and the 521 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Norwood's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Norwood has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Warren County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Norwood's 521 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warren 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 Warren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Norwood's 521 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Norwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 521 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Norwood-wide figureread your own land →
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