Ranger, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ranger, 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 Ranger 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 Ranger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ranger — the short answer
Ranger, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 591 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 591 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 Ranger's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ranger's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ranger
Each reading below is measured for Ranger itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRanger runs about 245 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
MeasuredRanger 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 Ranger is in
Ranger sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ranger's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gordon County.
What Grows in Ranger
Every plant below cleared Ranger's own zone 8a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ranger?
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 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Ranger
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ranger. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALLIED UNIVERSAL CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- ALLIED UNIVERSAL CORPSuperfund · 1100 ft
- ROSWELL AUTO BROKERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PILGRIM'S PRIDE CORPORATION (RANGER FEED MILL)Toxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- ALLIANCE FULFILLMENT LLC FAIRMOUNTBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- FASTMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- CLOSEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- GA DOT #10611/FAIRMOUNT MAINT HQUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- OAKMAN TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- JM HUBER CORPBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- AMERICAN COLLOID CO./CETCOToxics Release Inventory · 4.0 mi
- PINE HALL BRICK CO., INC. - PLANT #7Toxics Release Inventory · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ranger'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 Ranger.
Total Sites
78
within ~10 miles of Ranger
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ranger
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ranger
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ranger, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Ranger. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Ranger
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 Ranger average
Your land is one point inside Ranger
Everything above resolves to Ranger as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 591 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 Ranger Average
Ranger Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ranger
- ●One soil character for all of Ranger
- ●Frost dates read at Ranger's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ranger's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ranger
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ranger, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ranger averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ranger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ranger average
How we know this about Ranger
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 Ranger’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 Ranger
When does frost risk typically end in Ranger?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ranger 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 Ranger?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ranger typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ranger?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ranger sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 2, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ranger?
The federal record around Ranger is a meaningful one — 78 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Ranger?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ranger's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ranger'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 Ranger’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ranger's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 591 acres it covers and 78 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ranger's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ranger's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 16 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 78 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ranger, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ranger's boundary and the 591 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ranger's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ranger's 591 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gordon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gordon 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 Gordon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ranger's 591 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ranger you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 591 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Ranger-wide figureread your own land →
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