Black Mountain, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Black Mountain, 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 Black Mountain 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 Black Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Black Mountain — the short answer
Black Mountain, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 4K 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)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Black Mountain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Black Mountain's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Black Mountain
Each reading below is measured for Black Mountain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlack Mountain runs about 209 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
MeasuredBlack Mountain 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 Black Mountain is in
Black Mountain sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Black Mountain's own centroid rather than borrowed from Buncombe County.
What Grows in Black Mountain
Every plant below cleared Black Mountain's own zone 7b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Black Mountain?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Nov 1 — 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 Black Mountain
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Black Mountain, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Black Mountain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Black Mountain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAST FARE NC 652Brownfields · 450 ft
- AMOCCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #3860Brownfields · 500 ft
- DREXEL HERITAGE FURNISH. PLT. 10Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- BLACK MTN 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WILLIAMS VALLEY OIL SERVICE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BLACK MOUNTAIN CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MCMURRAY CHEVROLET CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ROADRUNNER MARKET 135Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- STATE STREET EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- STOP N GO 8Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- NCDSCA DC110017 ( HOUR GLASS CLEANERS )Brownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Black Mountain'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 Black Mountain.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Black Mountain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Black Mountain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Black Mountain, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Black Mountain — Toxics Release Inventory (17 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Black Mountain
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 Black Mountain average
Your land is one point inside Black Mountain
Everything above resolves to Black Mountain as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Black Mountain Average
Black Mountain Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Black Mountain
- ●One soil character for all of Black Mountain
- ●Frost dates read at Black Mountain's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Black Mountain's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Black Mountain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Black Mountain, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Black Mountain averages can't show:
We read public map data around Black Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Black Mountain average
How we know this about Black Mountain
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 Black Mountain’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 Black Mountain
When does frost risk typically end in Black Mountain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Black Mountain 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 Black Mountain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Black Mountain typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Black Mountain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Black Mountain sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 18, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Black Mountain?
The federal record around Black Mountain is a meaningful one — 169 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (120), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Black Mountain?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Black Mountain's scale — its 7b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Black Mountain'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 Black Mountain’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Black Mountain's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,318 acres it covers and 169 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Black Mountain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Black Mountain's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 1 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 169 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Black Mountain, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Black Mountain's boundary and the 4,318 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Black Mountain's own centroid, the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Black Mountainlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Black Mountain's 4,318 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 Black Mountain's 4,318 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Black Mountain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,318 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Black Mountain-wide figureread your own land →
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