Resaca, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Resaca, 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 Resaca 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 Resaca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Resaca — the short answer
Resaca, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Resaca's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Resaca's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Resaca
Each reading below is measured for Resaca itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredResaca runs about 240 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
MeasuredResaca 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 Resaca is in
Resaca sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Resaca's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gordon County.
What Grows in Resaca
Every plant below cleared Resaca's own zone 8a and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Resaca?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Resaca
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Resaca. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNNAMED VEHICLE REPAIR SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- PENSKE TRUCK LEASING CO., LPBrownfields · 1000 ft
- FLYING J TRAVEL PLAZA #632Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- YANCEY BROS CO - RESACA YPSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- DOOLEY'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- YELLOW FREIGHT SYSTEM INC (CAH)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- XL CORPToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- YANCEY BROS CO - CALHOUNBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- H & K SHOPPETTE #130Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- YANCEY BROS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MYDRIN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BOSTIK INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Resaca'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 Resaca.
Total Sites
406
within ~10 miles of Resaca
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Resaca
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Resaca
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Resaca, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Resaca — Toxics Release Inventory (82 sites) and Superfund (11 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Resaca
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 Resaca average
Your land is one point inside Resaca
Everything above resolves to Resaca as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Resaca Average
Resaca Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Resaca
- ●One soil character for all of Resaca
- ●Frost dates read at Resaca's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Resaca's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Resaca
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Resaca, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Resaca averages can't show:
We read public map data around Resaca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Resaca average
How we know this about Resaca
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 Resaca’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 Resaca
When does frost risk typically end in Resaca?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Resaca typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Resaca?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Resaca typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Resaca?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Resaca sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Oct 29, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Resaca?
The federal record around Resaca is a meaningful one — 406 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (217), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Resaca?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Resaca's scale — its 8a band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Resaca'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 Resaca’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Resaca's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,774 acres it covers and 406 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Resaca's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Resaca's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 12 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 406 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Resaca, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Resaca's boundary and the 1,774 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Resaca's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Resaca's 1,774 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 Resaca's 1,774 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Resaca you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,774 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 Resaca-wide figureread your own land →
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