Talahi Island, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Talahi Island, 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 Talahi Island 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 Talahi Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Talahi Island — the short answer
Talahi Island, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 824 acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 824 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 Talahi Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Talahi Island's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Talahi Island
Each reading below is measured for Talahi Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTalahi Island runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Chatham County, the closest normal to Talahi Island) — 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
MeasuredTalahi Island 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 Talahi Island is in
Talahi Island sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Talahi Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chatham County.
What Grows in Talahi Island
Every plant below cleared Talahi Island'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 Talahi Island?
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 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. 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 Talahi Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Talahi Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIRCLE K #7716Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 38Q022Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- CHUS #103Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KROGER 609-11Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- KROGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CIRCLE K #2705159Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- LIL CHAMP/HUNTLEY JIFFY STORE #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LIFT STATION 38Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WALGREENS #6098Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #4230Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- PUBLIX SUPERMARKET 456 PUBLIX AT WILMINGTON ISLANDBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SAVANNAH BEE COMPANYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Talahi Island'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 Talahi Island.
Total Sites
734
within ~10 miles of Talahi Island
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Talahi Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Talahi Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Talahi Island, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Talahi Island — PFAS (9 sites) and Superfund (13 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Talahi Island
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 Talahi Island average
Your land is one point inside Talahi Island
Everything above resolves to Talahi Island as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 824 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Chatham 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 Talahi Island Average
Talahi Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Talahi Island
- ●One soil character for all of Talahi Island
- ●Frost dates read at Talahi Island's scale: Feb 8 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Talahi Island's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Talahi Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Talahi Island, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Talahi Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Talahi Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Talahi Island average
How we know this about Talahi Island
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 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 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 Talahi Island
When does frost risk typically end in Talahi Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Talahi Island 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 Talahi Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Talahi Island 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 Talahi Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Talahi Island 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 Talahi Island?
The federal record around Talahi Island is a meaningful one — 734 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (493), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Talahi Island?
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 Talahi Island's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Talahi Island'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 Talahi Island’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Talahi Island's own scale — the 824 acres it covers and 734 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Talahi Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 734 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Talahi Island, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Talahi Island's boundary and the 824 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 Talahi Island's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Talahi Island 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 Talahi Island's 824 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 Talahi Island's 824 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Talahi Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 824 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 Talahi Island-wide figureread your own land →