Woolsey, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Woolsey, 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 Woolsey 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 Woolsey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Woolsey — the short answer
Woolsey, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 524 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- Fayette County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- Fayette County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- Fayette County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 524 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 Fayette County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Woolsey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woolsey's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woolsey
Each reading below is measured for Woolsey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWoolsey runs about 248 days between hard freezes (read from Fayette County, the closest normal to Woolsey) — 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
MeasuredWoolsey sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Woolsey is in
Woolsey sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Woolsey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fayette County.
What Grows in Woolsey
Every plant below cleared Woolsey's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woolsey?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Woolsey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woolsey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MP CONVENIENCE STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 10AA01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- BRENDAS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- TARGET DISTRIBUTION CENTER T3868Brownfields · 3.1 mi
- FLINT RIVER STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- ROLLINGBROOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- COUNTY LINE COUNTRY STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- FAYETTEVILLEPFAS · 3.5 mi
- HARP GRADING COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- FAYETTE COUNTY TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- CLAYTON CO FIRE DEPT #10Underground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- SOUTH FAYETTE CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woolsey'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 Woolsey.
Total Sites
307
within ~10 miles of Woolsey
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woolsey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woolsey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woolsey, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Woolsey — Toxics Release Inventory (22 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Woolsey
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 Woolsey average
Your land is one point inside Woolsey
Everything above resolves to Woolsey as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 524 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fayette 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 Woolsey Average
Woolsey Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Woolsey
- ●One soil character for all of Woolsey
- ●Frost dates read at Woolsey's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woolsey's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woolsey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woolsey, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woolsey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woolsey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woolsey average
How we know this about Woolsey
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 Fayette 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 Woolsey
When does frost risk typically end in Woolsey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woolsey typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 4.
When is the first frost in Woolsey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woolsey typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woolsey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woolsey sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 3, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woolsey?
The federal record around Woolsey is a meaningful one — 307 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (199), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Woolsey?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Woolsey's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woolsey'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 Woolsey’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Woolsey's own scale — the 524 acres it covers and 307 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woolsey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 307 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woolsey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woolsey's boundary and the 524 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Woolsey's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Woolsey has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fayette County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woolsey's 524 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woolsey's 524 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woolsey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 524 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Woolsey-wide figureread your own land →
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