Poulan, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Poulan, 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 Poulan 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 Poulan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Poulan — the short answer
Poulan, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 7
- Worth County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Worth County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Worth 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 Worth County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Poulan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Poulan's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Poulan
Each reading below is measured for Poulan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPoulan runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Worth County, the closest normal to Poulan) — 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
MeasuredPoulan sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Poulan is in
Poulan sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Poulan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Worth County.
What Grows in Poulan
Every plant below cleared Poulan's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Poulan?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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 Poulan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Poulan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHIBA FOOD STORE #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- EDS TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 15L034Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- CONAGRA FOODSToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- 15L030Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 15L058Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- EZ-CORNER-33Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #7245Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- 15L020Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- GA DOT #10447/WORTH CO MAINT HQUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- J&J GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- GENUINE PARTS WCO COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Poulan'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 Poulan.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Poulan
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Poulan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Poulan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Poulan, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Poulan — Nitrate (30 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (60 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Poulan
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 Poulan average
Your land is one point inside Poulan
Everything above resolves to Poulan as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Worth 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 Poulan Average
Poulan Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Poulan
- ●One soil character for all of Poulan
- ●Frost dates read at Poulan's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Poulan's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Poulan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Poulan, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Poulan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Poulan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Poulan average
How we know this about Poulan
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 Worth 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 Poulan
When does frost risk typically end in Poulan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Poulan typically lands around Feb 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 Feb 28.
When is the first frost in Poulan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Poulan typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Poulan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Poulan sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 7 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 28 to Nov 24, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Poulan?
The federal record around Poulan shows 95 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles 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 Poulan?
From about Nov 8 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 Dec 8 (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 Dec 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Poulan's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Poulan'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 Poulan’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Poulan's own scale — the 1,071 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Poulan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Poulan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Poulan's boundary and the 1,071 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Poulan's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Poulan has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Worth County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Poulan's 1,071 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Worth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Worth 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 Worth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Poulan's 1,071 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Poulan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,071 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Poulan-wide figureread your own land →
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