Barnardsville, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Barnardsville, 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 Barnardsville 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 Barnardsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Barnardsville — the short answer
Barnardsville, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- 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 7b is Barnardsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barnardsville's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barnardsville
Each reading below is measured for Barnardsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBarnardsville runs about 206 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
MeasuredBarnardsville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Barnardsville is in
Barnardsville sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Barnardsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Buncombe County.
What Grows in Barnardsville
Every plant below cleared Barnardsville's own zone 7b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barnardsville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Barnardsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Barnardsville, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Barnardsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barnardsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUCKNER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ONE STOP 14Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CARSON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Democrat Chromite ProspectMining · 2.0 mi
- COMMUNITY CASH & CARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Holcombe Branch Chromite ProspectMining · 2.4 mi
- Holcombe Branch Olivine DepositMining · 2.4 mi
- Democrat Olivine DepositMining · 2.4 mi
- Unnamed Sample Locality & Nearby TrenchMining · 2.6 mi
- Morgan Hill Chromite ProspectMining · 3.0 mi
- Unnamed Sample LocalityMining · 3.0 mi
- WHEELER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barnardsville'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 Barnardsville.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Barnardsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barnardsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barnardsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barnardsville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Barnardsville — Mining (10 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Barnardsville
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 Barnardsville average
Your land is one point inside Barnardsville
Everything above resolves to Barnardsville 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 Barnardsville Average
Barnardsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Barnardsville
- ●One soil character for all of Barnardsville
- ●Frost dates read at Barnardsville's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barnardsville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barnardsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barnardsville, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barnardsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barnardsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barnardsville average
How we know this about Barnardsville
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 Barnardsville’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 Barnardsville
When does frost risk typically end in Barnardsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barnardsville typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Barnardsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barnardsville typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barnardsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barnardsville sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 15, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barnardsville?
The federal record around Barnardsville is a meaningful one — 108 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Barnardsville?
From about Sep 29 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 Oct 29 (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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barnardsville's scale — its 7b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barnardsville'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 Barnardsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Barnardsville's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,259 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barnardsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barnardsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 29 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barnardsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barnardsville's boundary and the 2,259 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Barnardsville's own centroid, the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Barnardsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Barnardsville's 2,259 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Buncombe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Buncombe 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 Buncombe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barnardsville's 2,259 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barnardsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,259 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Barnardsville-wide figureread your own land →