Anderson Creek, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Anderson Creek, 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 Anderson Creek 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 Anderson Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Anderson Creek — the short answer
Anderson Creek, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 13K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Anderson Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Anderson Creek's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Anderson Creek
Each reading below is measured for Anderson Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAnderson Creek runs about 256 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredAnderson Creek 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 Anderson Creek is in
Anderson Creek sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Anderson Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Harnett County.
What Grows in Anderson Creek
Every plant below cleared Anderson Creek's own zone 8a and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Anderson Creek?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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.
Documented around Anderson Creek
Survey cells within 31 miles of Anderson Creek checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 45 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Anderson Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Anderson Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEVON'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- DATON HOLDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SHORT STOP FOOD MARTS 8Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CHARLIE'S AUTO PARTS & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SPRING LAKE REGIONAL W.W.T.P.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- T.L. JOHNSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- STEWARTS OF SPRING LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- LONG VALLEY FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MATTHEWS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- RYAN'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- HARNETT REGIONAL WATERPFAS · 3.9 mi
- SPRING LAKE, TOWN OFPFAS · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Anderson Creek'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 Anderson Creek.
Total Sites
125
within ~10 miles of Anderson Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Anderson Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Anderson Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Anderson Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Anderson Creek — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Anderson Creek
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 Anderson Creek average
Your land is one point inside Anderson Creek
Everything above resolves to Anderson Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 13K acres. 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 Anderson Creek Average
Anderson Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Anderson Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Anderson Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Anderson Creek's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Anderson Creek's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Anderson Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Anderson Creek, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Anderson Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Anderson Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Anderson Creek average
How we know this about Anderson Creek
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 Anderson Creek’s own record; 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 Anderson Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Anderson Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Anderson Creek typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Anderson Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Anderson Creek typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Anderson Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Anderson Creek sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 8, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Anderson Creek?
The federal record around Anderson Creek is a meaningful one — 125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Anderson Creek?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Anderson Creek's scale — its 8a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Anderson Creek'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 Anderson Creek’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Anderson Creek's own scale — its own ~256-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,958 acres it covers and 125 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Anderson Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Anderson Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 22 and the ~256-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Anderson Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Anderson Creek's boundary and the 12,958 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Anderson Creek's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Anderson Creek checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Anderson Creek's 12,958 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harnett County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harnett 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 Harnett County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Anderson Creek's 12,958 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Anderson Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,958 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Anderson Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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