The Rock, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in The Rock, 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 The Rock 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 The Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Rock — the short answer
The Rock, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 275 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- Upson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Upson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~275
- Upson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Upson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is The Rock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against The Rock's 275-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in The Rock
Each reading below is measured for The Rock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsThe Rock runs about 275 days between hard freezes (read from Upson County, the closest normal to The Rock) — 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
MeasuredThe Rock 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 The Rock is in
The Rock sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at The Rock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Upson County.
What Grows in The Rock
Every plant below cleared The Rock's own zone 8b and its 275-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in The Rock?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — 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 The Rock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of The Rock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUAD/GRAPHICS INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- QUAD/GRAPHICS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- RANEWS COMPANIESBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- J W LOGGINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- TRUITT & PITTS LOGGIN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- INTERFOR US INC - THOMASTON DIVISIONBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- INTERFOR US INC - THOMASTON DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 3.1 mi
- THOMASTON UPSON BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- INTERFOR U.S. INC. - THOMASTONToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- KEADLE LUMBER ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- GA FORESTRY COMMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- UPSON COUNTY PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from The Rock'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 The Rock.
Total Sites
191
within ~10 miles of The Rock
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of The Rock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of The Rock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around The Rock, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of The Rock — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (20 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in The Rock
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 Rock average
Your land is one point inside The Rock
Everything above resolves to The Rock as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Upson 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 The Rock Average
The Rock Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across The Rock
- ●One soil character for all of The Rock
- ●Frost dates read at The Rock's scale: Mar 1 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not The Rock's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in The Rock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in The Rock, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rock averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rock average
How we know this about The Rock
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 Upson 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 The Rock
When does frost risk typically end in The Rock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in The Rock typically lands around Mar 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in The Rock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in The Rock typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 275 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in The Rock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, The Rock sees about 275 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 17, about 240 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in The Rock?
The federal record around The Rock is a meaningful one — 191 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (144), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 The Rock?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at The Rock's scale — its 8b band and its 275-day season. Your yard writes its own version of The Rock'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 The Rock’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at The Rock's own scale — the 2,662 acres it covers and 191 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The Rock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 191 documented contamination sites on the federal record near The Rock, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- The Rock's boundary and the 2,662 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~275-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at The Rock's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — The Rock has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Upson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so The Rock's 2,662 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Upson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Upson 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 Upson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among The Rock's 2,662 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of The Rock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,662 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 The Rock-wide figureread your own land →
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