Sunnyside, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Sunnyside, 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 Sunnyside 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 Sunnyside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sunnyside — the short answer
Sunnyside, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 295 days between hard freezes, across 908 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Ware County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Ware County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~295
- Ware County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 908 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 Ware County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Sunnyside's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunnyside's 295-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunnyside
Each reading below is measured for Sunnyside itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSunnyside runs about 295 days between hard freezes (read from Ware County, the closest normal to Sunnyside) — 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
MeasuredSunnyside 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 Sunnyside is in
Sunnyside sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sunnyside's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ware County.
What Grows in Sunnyside
Every plant below cleared Sunnyside's own zone 9a and its 295-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sunnyside?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Sunnyside
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunnyside. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MURRAY PLBG CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- FLASH FOODS #11Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WAYCROSS FIRE STATION 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MAYO CLINIC HEALTH SYS IN WAYCROSS SATILLA CARE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CORNER STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GASTON ENTERPRISES/SATILLA HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FLASH FOODS #127Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WAYCROSSPFAS · 0.9 mi
- MEMORIAL SATILLA HEALTHBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MAYO CLINIC HEALTH SYS IN WAYCROSSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DNR WILDLIFE RES DIV - FISHERIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WAYCROSS FOOD & BEVERAGE #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunnyside'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 Sunnyside.
Total Sites
300
within ~10 miles of Sunnyside
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunnyside
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunnyside
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunnyside, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sunnyside — PFAS (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (226 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sunnyside
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 Sunnyside average
Your land is one point inside Sunnyside
Everything above resolves to Sunnyside as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 908 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Ware 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 Sunnyside Average
Sunnyside Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Sunnyside
- ●One soil character for all of Sunnyside
- ●Frost dates read at Sunnyside's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunnyside's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunnyside
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunnyside, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunnyside averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunnyside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunnyside average
How we know this about Sunnyside
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 Ware 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 Sunnyside
When does frost risk typically end in Sunnyside?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunnyside typically lands around Feb 14, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Sunnyside?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunnyside typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 295 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sunnyside?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunnyside sees about 295 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 22, about 260 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sunnyside?
The federal record around Sunnyside is a meaningful one — 300 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (226), 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 Sunnyside?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sunnyside's scale — its 9a band and its 295-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunnyside'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 Sunnyside’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sunnyside's own scale — the 908 acres it covers and 300 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunnyside's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 300 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunnyside, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunnyside's boundary and the 908 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~295-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sunnyside's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sunnyside has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Ware County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sunnyside's 908 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ware County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ware 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 Ware County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sunnyside's 908 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunnyside you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 908 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 Sunnyside-wide figureread your own land →
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