Sylvania, 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.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Sylvania, 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 Sylvania 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 Sylvania — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sylvania — the short answer
Sylvania, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Screven County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Screven County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- Screven County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Screven County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Sylvania's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sylvania's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sylvania
Each reading below is measured for Sylvania itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSylvania runs about 282 days between hard freezes (read from Screven County, the closest normal to Sylvania) — 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
MeasuredSylvania 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 Sylvania is in
Sylvania sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sylvania's own centroid rather than borrowed from Screven County.
What Grows in Sylvania
Every plant below cleared Sylvania's own zone 8b and its 282-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sylvania?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Sylvania
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sylvania. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROWER OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- NEIGHBORS EXXON #60Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MATT GAY CHEV-OLDS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DAY & NITE MINI MARKET STORE & MUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- RITE AID STORE NO 1428Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WALGREENS 17421Brownfields · 1200 ft
- NUNNALLYS CHEVRON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GARYS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HANDI PANTRY DBA POPS PANTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HANDI PANTRY INC D/B/A/ POP'S PAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- RAYS UNION 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- EL CHEAPO #55Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sylvania'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 Sylvania.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Sylvania
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sylvania
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sylvania
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sylvania, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Sylvania. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Sylvania
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 Sylvania average
Your land is one point inside Sylvania
Everything above resolves to Sylvania as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Screven 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 Sylvania Average
Sylvania Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sylvania
- ●One soil character for all of Sylvania
- ●Frost dates read at Sylvania's scale: Feb 23 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sylvania's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sylvania
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sylvania, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sylvania averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sylvania — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sylvania average
How we know this about Sylvania
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 Screven 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 Sylvania
When does frost risk typically end in Sylvania?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sylvania typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Sylvania?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sylvania typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 282 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sylvania?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sylvania sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 18, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sylvania?
The federal record around Sylvania shows 74 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (52), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Sylvania?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sylvania's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sylvania'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 Sylvania’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sylvania's own scale — the 3,229 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sylvania's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sylvania, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sylvania's boundary and the 3,229 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sylvania's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sylvania has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Screven County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sylvania's 3,229 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Screven County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Screven 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 Screven County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sylvania's 3,229 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sylvania you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,229 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Sylvania-wide figureread your own land →
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