Roswell, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Roswell, 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 Roswell 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 Roswell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Roswell — the short answer
Roswell, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 26K acres of city.
- 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 26K 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 Roswell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Roswell's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Roswell
Each reading below is measured for Roswell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRoswell runs about 247 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
MeasuredRoswell 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 Roswell is in
Roswell sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Roswell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fulton County.
What Grows in Roswell
Every plant below cleared Roswell's own zone 8a and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Roswell?
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 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 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Roswell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Roswell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RaceTrac #644 - CrossvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- KROGER - 431Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KROGER GA #431Brownfields · 1500 ft
- ROSWELL AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CAR SPA #29Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Ocoee MineMining · 2400 ft
- CHEVRON STATION #40026Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Q LUBE INC #1162Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BP #24118/GULF #541144Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BST/HOUZE RD SOC F5564Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- COMMERCIAL PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- E-Z SERVE #8166Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Roswell'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 Roswell.
Total Sites
1,004
within ~10 miles of Roswell
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Roswell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Roswell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Roswell, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 617 sites within ~10 miles of Roswell. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Roswell
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 Roswell average
Your land is one point inside Roswell
Everything above resolves to Roswell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 26K 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 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 Roswell Average
Roswell Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Roswell
- ●One soil character for all of Roswell
- ●Frost dates read at Roswell's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Roswell's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Roswell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Roswell, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Roswell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Roswell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Roswell average
How we know this about Roswell
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 Roswell’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 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 Roswell
When does frost risk typically end in Roswell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Roswell 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 Roswell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Roswell typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Roswell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Roswell sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 4, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Roswell?
The federal record around Roswell is a meaningful one — 1,004 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (617), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Roswell?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Roswell's scale — its 8a band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Roswell'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 Roswell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Roswell's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 26,068 acres it covers and 1,004 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Roswell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Roswell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 18 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,004 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Roswell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Roswell's boundary and the 26,068 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Roswell's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Roswell's 26,068 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fulton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fulton 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 Fulton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Roswell's 26,068 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Roswell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 26,068 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Roswell-wide figureread your own land →
More in Georgia
Growing region
Nearby growing guides