Scotland, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Scotland, 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 Scotland 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 Scotland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Scotland — the short answer
Scotland, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 918 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Telfair County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Telfair County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Telfair County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 918 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 Telfair County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Scotland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scotland's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scotland
Each reading below is measured for Scotland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsScotland runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Telfair County, the closest normal to Scotland) — 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
MeasuredScotland sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Scotland is in
Scotland sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Scotland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Telfair County.
What Grows in Scotland
Every plant below cleared Scotland's own zone 8b and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scotland?
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 Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (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 Scotland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scotland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GOLDEN PEANUT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GA POWER/MCRAE OPER HQUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- BAY STATION #647Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- GA PACIFICUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- AT&T/MCRAE RADIO RELAY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- CORNELL-YOUNG CO PLANT #5Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- AMERICAN YARD PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- HUSQVARNA OUTDOOR PRODUCTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- STONE CONTAINER CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- GLYNN'S BP (FORMERLY)Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- TELFAIR CO SCHOOLS CENTRAL OFFICUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- CLARE TRACTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scotland'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 Scotland.
Total Sites
79
within ~10 miles of Scotland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scotland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scotland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scotland, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 72 sites within ~10 miles of Scotland. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Scotland
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 Scotland average
Your land is one point inside Scotland
Everything above resolves to Scotland as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 918 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Telfair 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 Scotland Average
Scotland Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Scotland
- ●One soil character for all of Scotland
- ●Frost dates read at Scotland's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scotland's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scotland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scotland, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scotland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scotland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scotland average
How we know this about Scotland
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 Telfair 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 Scotland
When does frost risk typically end in Scotland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scotland typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 9.
When is the first frost in Scotland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scotland 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 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scotland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scotland sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 20, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scotland?
The federal record around Scotland shows 79 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (72), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Scotland?
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 Scotland's scale — its 8b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scotland'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 Scotland’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Scotland's own scale — the 918 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scotland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scotland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scotland's boundary and the 918 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scotland's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Scotland has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Telfair County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Scotland's 918 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Telfair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Telfair 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 Telfair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scotland's 918 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scotland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 918 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 Scotland-wide figureread your own land →
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