Satilla, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Satilla, 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 Satilla 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 Satilla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Satilla — the short answer
Satilla, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 290 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Jeff Davis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Jeff Davis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~290
- Jeff Davis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Jeff Davis County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Satilla's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Satilla's 290-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Satilla
Each reading below is measured for Satilla itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSatilla runs about 290 days between hard freezes (read from Jeff Davis County, the closest normal to Satilla) — 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
MeasuredSatilla 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 Satilla is in
Satilla sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Satilla's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jeff Davis County.
What Grows in Satilla
Every plant below cleared Satilla's own zone 9a and its 290-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Satilla?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — 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 Satilla
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Satilla. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SATILLA ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ATLANTIC COAST CARRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- 25N002Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- MIDWAY STOP & SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- FUEL SOUTH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- FUEL SOUTH INC/FRAZIER OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- HAZLEHURST WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 2.9 mi
- DAVIS FARM & GARDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- THOMPSON HARDWOODS, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 3.8 mi
- RIDGE PALLETSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- OCMULGEE OUTDOORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- OCMULGEE TRACTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Satilla'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 Satilla.
Total Sites
125
within ~10 miles of Satilla
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Satilla
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Satilla
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Satilla, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Satilla — Underground Storage Tanks (99 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Satilla
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 Satilla average
Your land is one point inside Satilla
Everything above resolves to Satilla as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jeff Davis County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Satilla Average
Satilla Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Satilla
- ●One soil character for all of Satilla
- ●Frost dates read at Satilla's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Satilla's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Satilla
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Satilla, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Satilla averages can't show:
We read public map data around Satilla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Satilla average
How we know this about Satilla
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 Jeff Davis 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 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 Satilla
When does frost risk typically end in Satilla?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Satilla typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 10.
When is the first frost in Satilla?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Satilla typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 290 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Satilla?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Satilla sees about 290 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 20, about 255 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Satilla?
The federal record around Satilla is a meaningful one — 125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (99), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Satilla?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Satilla's scale — its 9a band and its 290-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Satilla'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 Satilla’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Satilla's own scale — the 1,959 acres it covers and 125 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Satilla's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Satilla, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Satilla's boundary and the 1,959 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~290-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Satilla's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Satilla has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jeff Davis County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Satilla's 1,959 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jeff Davis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jeff Davis 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 Jeff Davis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Satilla's 1,959 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Satilla you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,959 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 Satilla-wide figureread your own land →
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