Place guide
Planting zones in Hinesville, GA
Every ZIP code in this metro is USDA zone 9a. That is unusual — most metros span several zones — and it means the one number people usually look up is the same wherever you are here.
Your ZIP code
Get the exact answer for your address
Everything above describes Hinesville, GA as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.
What you can sow in Hinesville, GA now
5 of 32 crops that every one of the 1 NOAA station serving this metro area agrees still has time to mature — with a week in hand, so this holds until the page is next rebuilt.
- 🧅 Green Onions 55d
- 🥬 Swiss Chard 55d
- 🥬 Kale 60d
- 🥬 Collards 60d
- 🥕 Carrots 70d
Counted against a first fall freeze of November 29 across 1 of those stations, NOAA 1991–2020 normals.
All 1 stations agreeAt least one station
Every one of the 1 NOAA stations serving this metro area counts March 5 – November 29 as growing season (269 days). Widening to any single station gives March 5 – November 29 (269 days).
Your freeze dates
One NOAA station serves this metro, so these are its published medians rather than a range.
Your growing season
NOAA publishes a growing-season length for each station, and across the 1 station serving Hinesville, GA it runs 269 days . That figure is published, not computed from the two freeze dates — subtracting one from the other gives the wrong answer wherever a season crosses New Year. Mean summer high (June–August) runs 90 °F , at or above the 90 °F point where cool-season crops bolt and tomato and pepper pollen fails — so midsummer sowings of lettuce and its relatives are worth holding here. Summer rain over the same months runs 19.0" across that station, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. At the middle station that is covered, so watering in Hinesville, GA is for the gaps between storms rather than the whole season. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 90 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.
When to start seeds in Hinesville, GA
Every spring job for 63 crop dates, counted from this metro's own last spring freeze. Each is a range across all 1 stations — the earliest and latest that job falls anywhere in the metro — because no one station speaks for the whole area.
| Crop | Job | When | Offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green Onions | Start indoors | January 8 | 8 weeks before |
| Peppers | Start indoors | January 8 | 8 weeks before |
| Broccoli | Start indoors | January 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Cabbage | Start indoors | January 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Collards | Start indoors | January 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Kale | Start indoors | January 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Start indoors | January 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Peas | Direct sow | January 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Spinach | Direct sow | January 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Sweet Potato | Start indoors | January 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Tomatoes | Start indoors | January 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Start indoors | January 29 | 5 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Start indoors | January 29 | 5 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Start indoors | January 29 | 5 weeks before |
| Arugula | Direct sow | February 5 | 4 weeks before |
| Baby Salad Greens | Direct sow | February 5 | 4 weeks before |
| Beets | Direct sow | February 5 | 4 weeks before |
| Green Onions | Direct sow | February 5 | 4 weeks before |
| Mustard Greens | Direct sow | February 5 | 4 weeks before |
| Okra | Start indoors | February 5 | 4 weeks before |
| Radishes | Direct sow | February 5 | 4 weeks before |
| Turnips | Direct sow | February 5 | 4 weeks before |
| Cabbage | Set out | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Carrots | Direct sow | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Collards | Direct sow | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Collards | Set out | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Cucumbers | Start indoors | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Green Onions | Set out | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Kale | Direct sow | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Kale | Set out | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Direct sow | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Set out | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Direct sow | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Pumpkins | Start indoors | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Summer Squash | Start indoors | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Winter Squash | Start indoors | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Zucchini | Start indoors | February 12 | 3 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Direct sow | February 19 | 2 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Set out | February 19 | 2 weeks before |
| Broccoli | Set out | February 19 | 2 weeks before |
| Cilantro | Direct sow | February 19 | 2 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Set out | February 19 | 2 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Direct sow | February 19 | 2 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Set out | February 19 | 2 weeks before |
| Dill | Direct sow | February 26 | 1 week before |
| Bush Beans | Direct sow | March 12 | 1 week after |
| Cucumbers | Set out | March 12 | 1 week after |
| Pumpkins | Direct sow | March 12 | 1 week after |
| Pumpkins | Set out | March 12 | 1 week after |
| Summer Squash | Direct sow | March 12 | 1 week after |
| Summer Squash | Set out | March 12 | 1 week after |
| Sweet Corn | Direct sow | March 12 | 1 week after |
| Tomatoes | Set out | March 12 | 1 week after |
| Winter Squash | Direct sow | March 12 | 1 week after |
| Winter Squash | Set out | March 12 | 1 week after |
| Zucchini | Direct sow | March 12 | 1 week after |
| Zucchini | Set out | March 12 | 1 week after |
| Cucumbers | Direct sow | March 19 | 2 weeks after |
| Okra | Direct sow | March 19 | 2 weeks after |
| Okra | Set out | March 19 | 2 weeks after |
| Peppers | Set out | March 19 | 2 weeks after |
| Southern Peas | Direct sow | March 19 | 2 weeks after |
| Sweet Potato | Set out | March 19 | 2 weeks after |
The week offsets are conventional extension guidance and vary by variety; the freeze dates they are counted from are measured. For a single date rather than a range, run when do I start my seeds? with your own ZIP code.
What lives through a zone 9a winter
Winter hardiness runs on the zone alone, so this one is exact for the whole of Hinesville, GA rather than a range. Of 74 perennial fruits, nuts, berries, vegetables and herbs, 46 come through a zone 9a winter — and 25 of the failures are not about cold at all, but about winters too mild to break dormancy or summers too hot.
Among them: Elderberry, Horseradish, Sunchoke, Walking Onion, Chives, Mint, American Persimmon, European Plum. See the full list with reasons.
Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic
- Last spring freeze
- Plan to March 26 to be careful. Median March 5 across 1 stations; February 6 is the optimistic end.
- First fall freeze
- Plan to November 11 to be careful. Median November 29 across 1 stations; December 26 is the optimistic end.
NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.
The 1 station behind these numbers
This metro area cites too few stations to place on a sketch; they are listed with their identifiers below.
Every figure above comes from these, and each is named so you can check it. Which station serves a given ZIP code, and how far away it is, varies across the metro — the table below gives it per ZIP code rather than this page averaging it.
| Station | NOAA ID | Last spring freeze | First fall freeze | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ft Stewart, GA | USC00093538 | March 5 | November 29 | 269 days |
These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.
Every ZIP code in Hinesville, GA
Zones are published per ZIP code, not per metro area, so this is the exact answer rather than the metro area's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.
| ZIP code | USDA zone | Nearest NOAA station | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31301 | 9a | Ft Stewart, GA | 12.5 km |
| 31309 | 9a | Ft Stewart, GA | 17.3 km |
| 31313 | 9a | Ft Stewart, GA | 3.7 km |
| 31314 | 9a | Ft Stewart, GA | 4.2 km |
| 31315 | 9a | Ft Stewart, GA | 2.6 km |
| 31316 | 9a | Ft Stewart, GA | 19.6 km |
| 31320 | 9a | Ft Stewart, GA | 26.7 km |
| 31323 | 9a | Ft Stewart, GA | 27.5 km |
| 31333 | 9a | Ft Stewart, GA | 11.3 km |
ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.
Your own ZIP
Work out your own dates
Each of these takes a ZIP code and answers for that ZIP alone, citing the station it used and how far away it is. There is a ZIP box in the header of every page.
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What survives my winter?
Runs on the hardiness zone, so it answers for all of Hinesville, GA at once — zone 9a across 74 perennial fruits, berries, vegetables and herbs.
- When do I start my seeds?
Dates every spring job from your own last freeze — sow indoors, set out, direct sow.
- When do I sow the next round?
How often each crop is worth re-sowing, and when the next sowing is due.
- What can I still plant?
Counts the growing days left before your first fall freeze, crop by crop.
Other places to compare
These metros are also entirely zone 9a, so the winter answer here is the same one they get — the freeze dates and the spring calendar are their own.
- Eagle Pass, TX — zone 9a
- Tallahassee, FL — zone 9a
- Alexandria, LA — zone 9a
- Valdosta, GA — zone 9a
- Slidell-Mandeville-Covington, LA — zone 9a
- Brunswick-St. Simons, GA — zone 9a
Gardening in Georgia — zones 7b– 9a covers the whole state: how its 743 ZIP codes divide between 4 hardiness zones, and the freeze dates across every NOAA station in it.
Other metro areas in GA:
- Rome, GA Zone 8a
- Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Zones 8a–8b
- Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC Zones 8a–8b
- Columbus, GA-AL Zones 8a–8b
- Savannah, GA Zones 8b–9a
- Macon-Bibb County, GA Zones 8a–8b
- Albany, GA Zones 8b–9a
- Valdosta, GA Zone 9a
- Athens-Clarke County, GA Zones 8a–8b
- Brunswick-St. Simons, GA Zone 9a
- Dalton, GA Zones 7b–8a
- Gainesville, GA Zone 8a
Gear
If you want to act on this
Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.
- Shade clothSummer highs here average 90 °F, at or above the 90 °F point where lettuce and spinach bolt and tomato pollen fails.
- Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.
Sources
Where these numbers come from
The hardiness zone is the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. The freeze dates are NOAA's 1991–2020 Climate Normals, read from every station whose normals cover a ZIP code in this metro. Nothing here is estimated, and no station stands in for another.
This page names no single station on purpose. Picking one to represent a metro sounds reasonable and is not: the station serving the most ZIP codes is an artifact of where ZIP centroids happen to fall, and it selects a lock on the Monongahela for Pittsburgh and a far southern suburb for Chicago. A range across every station is true; a single cited date for a whole metro is not.