North Carrollton, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in North Carrollton, 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 North Carrollton 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 North Carrollton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Carrollton — the short answer
North Carrollton, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 202 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Carroll County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- Carroll County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- Carroll County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 202 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 Carroll County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is North Carrollton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Carrollton's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Carrollton
Each reading below is measured for North Carrollton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNorth Carrollton runs about 261 days between hard freezes (read from Carroll County, the closest normal to North Carrollton) — 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
MeasuredNorth Carrollton 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 North Carrollton is in
North Carrollton sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Carrollton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carroll County.
What Grows in North Carrollton
Every plant below cleared North Carrollton's own zone 8a and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Carrollton?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near North Carrollton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Carrollton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 4-k Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- 015F0001 CARROLLNitrate · 550 ft
- Shell Go #512Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Farrish GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 015F0023 CARROLLNitrate · 1200 ft
- Junior Food Mart #9Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Crossroads GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Bus ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 015F0026 CARROLLNitrate · 0.7 mi
- Bst Carrollton Co 73101Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Carroll County Beat 5Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Carroll County CourthouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Carrollton'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 North Carrollton.
Total Sites
51
within ~10 miles of North Carrollton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 brownfield sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Carrollton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Carrollton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Carrollton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of North Carrollton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in North Carrollton
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 North Carrollton average
Your land is one point inside North Carrollton
Everything above resolves to North Carrollton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 202 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Carroll 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 North Carrollton Average
North Carrollton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across North Carrollton
- ●One soil character for all of North Carrollton
- ●Frost dates read at North Carrollton's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Carrollton's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Carrollton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Carrollton, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Carrollton averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Carrollton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Carrollton average
How we know this about North Carrollton
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 Carroll 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 North Carrollton
When does frost risk typically end in North Carrollton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Carrollton typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in North Carrollton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Carrollton typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Carrollton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Carrollton sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 5, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Carrollton?
The federal record around North Carrollton shows 51 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 North Carrollton?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Carrollton's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Carrollton'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 North Carrollton’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at North Carrollton's own scale — the 202 acres it covers and 51 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Carrollton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 51 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Carrollton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Carrollton's boundary and the 202 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Carrollton's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — North Carrollton has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Carroll County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Carrollton's 202 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carroll County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carroll County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Carroll County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Carrollton's 202 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Carrollton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 202 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 North Carrollton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiNorth Carrollton sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides