Bailey, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Bailey, 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 Bailey 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 Bailey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bailey — the short answer
Bailey, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 449 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- 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
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 449 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 Bailey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bailey's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bailey
Each reading below is measured for Bailey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBailey runs about 250 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
MeasuredBailey 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 Bailey is in
Bailey sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bailey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nash County.
What Grows in Bailey
Every plant below cleared Bailey's own zone 8a and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bailey?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Bailey
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Bailey, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bailey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bailey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOLLAND ATIQUE RESTORATIONBrownfields · 650 ft
- CORBETT OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BARNEY CECIL PEARSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- E.B. PEELEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ANNIE L FINCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- HERMAN BISSETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- GLOVER MILLING COMPANY INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CECIL'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BAILEY'S TOBACCO & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NA-191 BAILEY MUNNitrate · 1300 ft
- JOYNER MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- STRICKLAND'S USED CARS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bailey'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 Bailey.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of Bailey
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bailey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bailey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bailey, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bailey — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Bailey
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 Bailey average
Your land is one point inside Bailey
Everything above resolves to Bailey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 449 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 Bailey Average
Bailey Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bailey
- ●One soil character for all of Bailey
- ●Frost dates read at Bailey's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bailey's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bailey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bailey, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bailey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bailey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bailey average
How we know this about Bailey
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 Bailey’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 Bailey
When does frost risk typically end in Bailey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bailey typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Bailey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bailey 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 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bailey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bailey sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 6, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bailey?
The federal record around Bailey shows 149 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest Brownfields 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 Bailey?
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 Bailey's scale — its 8a band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bailey'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 Bailey’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bailey's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 449 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bailey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bailey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 20 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bailey, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bailey's boundary and the 449 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bailey's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Baileylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bailey's 449 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nash County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nash 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 Nash County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bailey's 449 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bailey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 449 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Bailey-wide figureread your own land →