Tignall, 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 Tignall, 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 Tignall 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 Tignall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tignall — the short answer
Tignall, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- Wilkes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- Wilkes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- Wilkes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Wilkes County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Tignall's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tignall's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tignall
Each reading below is measured for Tignall itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTignall runs about 259 days between hard freezes (read from Wilkes County, the closest normal to Tignall) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTignall 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 Tignall is in
Tignall sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tignall's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wilkes County.
What Grows in Tignall
Every plant below cleared Tignall's own zone 8b and its 259-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tignall?
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 Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Tignall
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tignall. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAST TRIP #2Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 24EE01Nitrate · 700 ft
- 24EE06Nitrate · 2600 ft
- TIGNALL KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BURT LUMBER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BROAD RIVER GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- 24FF01Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- NEWTOWN GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- FORTSON MINUTE SAVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- BUFFORD GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- BETTY O STANDARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tignall'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 Tignall.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Tignall
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tignall
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tignall
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tignall, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Tignall. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Tignall
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 Tignall average
Your land is one point inside Tignall
Everything above resolves to Tignall as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Wilkes 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 Tignall Average
Tignall Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Tignall
- ●One soil character for all of Tignall
- ●Frost dates read at Tignall's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tignall's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tignall
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tignall, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tignall averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tignall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tignall average
How we know this about Tignall
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 Wilkes 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 Tignall
When does frost risk typically end in Tignall?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tignall typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Tignall?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tignall typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 259 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tignall?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tignall sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 10, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tignall?
The federal record around Tignall shows 69 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tignall?
From about Oct 25 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 Nov 24 (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 Nov 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tignall's scale — its 8b band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tignall'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 Tignall’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Tignall's own scale — the 1,763 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tignall's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tignall, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tignall's boundary and the 1,763 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tignall's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tignall has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Wilkes County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tignall's 1,763 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wilkes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wilkes 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 Wilkes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tignall's 1,763 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tignall you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,763 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 Tignall-wide figureread your own land →
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