Alliance, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Alliance, 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 Alliance 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 Alliance — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alliance — the short answer
Alliance, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Pamlico County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Pamlico County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- Pamlico County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Pamlico County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Alliance's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alliance's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alliance
Each reading below is measured for Alliance itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAlliance runs about 292 days between hard freezes (read from Pamlico County, the closest normal to Alliance) — 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
MeasuredAlliance 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 Alliance is in
Alliance sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alliance's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pamlico County.
What Grows in Alliance
Every plant below cleared Alliance's own zone 8b and its 292-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alliance?
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 Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Alliance
Survey cells within 31 miles of Alliance checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 88 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Alliance
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alliance. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROYSTER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PAMLICO COUNTY SCH BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HANDY MART 11Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HANDY MART 169Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SAWYER'S CONV MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #7238Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- WILLIAMS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SAWYERS CONVIENCE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- KENNELS BEACH MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- COUNTY OF PAMLICOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SPEEDWAY #8262Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- GRANTSBORO SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alliance'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 Alliance.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alliance
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alliance
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alliance, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Alliance. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Alliance
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 Alliance average
Your land is one point inside Alliance
Everything above resolves to Alliance as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pamlico 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 Alliance Average
Alliance Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Alliance
- ●One soil character for all of Alliance
- ●Frost dates read at Alliance's scale: Feb 23 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alliance's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alliance
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alliance, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alliance averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alliance — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alliance average
How we know this about Alliance
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 Pamlico 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 Alliance
When does frost risk typically end in Alliance?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alliance typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Alliance?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alliance typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alliance?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alliance sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 28, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alliance?
The federal record around Alliance shows 87 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Alliance?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alliance's scale — its 8b band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alliance'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 Alliance’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alliance's own scale — the 1,335 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alliance's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alliance, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alliance's boundary and the 1,335 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alliance's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Alliance checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Alliance has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pamlico County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alliance's 1,335 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pamlico County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pamlico County
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Pamlico County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alliance's 1,335 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alliance you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,335 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Alliance-wide figureread your own land →
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