Beaufort, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Beaufort, 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 Beaufort 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 Beaufort — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Beaufort — the short answer
Beaufort, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Carteret County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Carteret County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Carteret County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Carteret County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Beaufort's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beaufort's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beaufort
Each reading below is measured for Beaufort itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBeaufort runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Carteret County, the closest normal to Beaufort) — 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
MeasuredBeaufort 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 Beaufort is in
Beaufort sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beaufort's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carteret County.
What Grows in Beaufort
Every plant below cleared Beaufort's own zone 8b and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beaufort?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Beaufort
Survey cells within 31 miles of Beaufort checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 78 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Beaufort
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beaufort. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USRP 13137 (FORMERLY GANT 830)Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- B & W CLASSIC CLEANERSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- CIRCLE K 2720906Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SAFRIT'S BUILDING SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SCHOOL GARAGE (NEW)Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TOWN OF BEAUFORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BEAUFORT EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CT-069 CAROLINA WATERNitrate · 2200 ft
- TOWN OF BEAUFORT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- AMOCO FOOD SHOP #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- FRESH WAY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- LUCY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beaufort'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 Beaufort.
Total Sites
232
within ~10 miles of Beaufort
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beaufort
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beaufort
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beaufort, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Beaufort — PFAS (4 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 Beaufort
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 Beaufort average
Your land is one point inside Beaufort
Everything above resolves to Beaufort as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Carteret 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 Beaufort Average
Beaufort Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Beaufort
- ●One soil character for all of Beaufort
- ●Frost dates read at Beaufort's scale: Feb 23 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beaufort's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beaufort
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beaufort, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beaufort averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beaufort — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beaufort average
How we know this about Beaufort
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 Carteret 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 Beaufort
When does frost risk typically end in Beaufort?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beaufort 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 Beaufort?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beaufort typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beaufort?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beaufort sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 27, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beaufort?
The federal record around Beaufort is a meaningful one — 232 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (154), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Beaufort?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Beaufort's scale — its 8b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beaufort'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 Beaufort’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Beaufort's own scale — the 3,283 acres it covers and 232 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beaufort's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 232 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beaufort, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beaufort's boundary and the 3,283 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beaufort's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Beaufort checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Beaufort has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Carteret County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beaufort's 3,283 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carteret County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carteret 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 Carteret County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beaufort's 3,283 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beaufort you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,283 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Beaufort-wide figureread your own land →