Savannah, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Savannah, 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 Savannah 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 Savannah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Savannah — the short answer
Savannah, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 70K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 8
- Chatham County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Chatham County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Chatham County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 70K 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 Chatham County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Savannah's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Savannah's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Savannah
Each reading below is measured for Savannah itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSavannah runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Chatham County, the closest normal to Savannah) — 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
MeasuredSavannah 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 Savannah is in
Savannah sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Savannah's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chatham County.
What Grows in Savannah
Every plant below cleared Savannah'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 Savannah?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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 Savannah
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Savannah. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 36Q398Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- FORMER PET SUPPLY (DOT PARCEL #57)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PARKERS #64Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- WALGREENS 10635Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- D&S CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #6369Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- BROGDAN'S TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- KROGER #011-0645Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- DESOTA GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- KROGER GA 645Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CIRCLE K #7703/SHOP & GO #703Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 36Q330Nitrate · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Savannah'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 Savannah.
Total Sites
1,175
within ~10 miles of Savannah
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Savannah
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Savannah
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Savannah, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Savannah — Superfund (18 sites) and PFAS (11 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Savannah
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 Savannah average
Your land is one point inside Savannah
Everything above resolves to Savannah as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 70K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Chatham 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 Savannah Average
Savannah Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Savannah
- ●One soil character for all of Savannah
- ●Frost dates read at Savannah's scale: Feb 8 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Savannah's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Savannah
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Savannah, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Savannah averages can't show:
We read public map data around Savannah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Savannah average
How we know this about Savannah
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 Chatham 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 Savannah
When does frost risk typically end in Savannah?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Savannah typically lands around Feb 8, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Savannah?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Savannah typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Savannah?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Savannah sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 8 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 1 to Nov 25, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Savannah?
The federal record around Savannah is a meaningful one — 1,175 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (775), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Savannah?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Savannah's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Savannah'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 Savannah’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Savannah's own scale — the 70,044 acres it covers and 1,175 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Savannah's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,175 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Savannah, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Savannah's boundary and the 70,044 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 Savannah's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Savannah has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Chatham County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Savannah's 70,044 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chatham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chatham 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 Chatham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Savannah's 70,044 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Savannah you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 70,044 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Savannah-wide figureread your own land →
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