Aquadale, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Aquadale, 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 Aquadale 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 Aquadale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Aquadale — the short answer
Aquadale, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Aquadale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Aquadale's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Aquadale
Each reading below is measured for Aquadale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAquadale runs about 249 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
MeasuredAquadale 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 Aquadale is in
Aquadale sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Aquadale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stanly County.
What Grows in Aquadale
Every plant below cleared Aquadale's own zone 8a and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Aquadale?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Aquadale
Survey cells within 31 miles of Aquadale checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 39 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Aquadale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Aquadale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STANLY FIXTURES ACQUISITION, LLC DBA STANLY FIXTURESToxics Release Inventory · 850 ft
- STANLY FIXTURES ACQUISITION, LLC DBA STANLY FIXTURESBrownfields · 850 ft
- SMITH FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- AQUADALE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CAROLINA SOLITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CAROLINA STALITE CO AQUADALE PROPERTIESBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- CAROLINA STALITE CO AQUADALE PROPERTIESToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- BUD COLEY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- C E MCSWAIN & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- MICHELIN AIRCRAFT TIRE COMPANYBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- MICHELIN AIRCRAFT TIRE COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 3.5 mi
- VIGORO INDUSTRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Aquadale'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 Aquadale.
Total Sites
257
within ~10 miles of Aquadale
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Aquadale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Aquadale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Aquadale, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Aquadale — Toxics Release Inventory (22 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (184 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Aquadale
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 Aquadale average
Your land is one point inside Aquadale
Everything above resolves to Aquadale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Aquadale Average
Aquadale Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Aquadale
- ●One soil character for all of Aquadale
- ●Frost dates read at Aquadale's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Aquadale's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Aquadale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Aquadale, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Aquadale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Aquadale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Aquadale average
How we know this about Aquadale
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 Aquadale’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 Aquadale
When does frost risk typically end in Aquadale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Aquadale typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Aquadale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Aquadale typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Aquadale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Aquadale sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 6, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Aquadale?
The federal record around Aquadale is a meaningful one — 257 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (184), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Aquadale?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Aquadale's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Aquadale'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 Aquadale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Aquadale's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,083 acres it covers and 257 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Aquadale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Aquadale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 20 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 257 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Aquadale, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Aquadale's boundary and the 2,083 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Aquadale's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Aquadale 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 Aquadale's 2,083 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stanly County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stanly 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 Stanly County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Aquadale's 2,083 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Aquadale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,083 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Aquadale-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Carolina
Growing region
Nearby growing guides