Bladenboro, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Bladenboro, 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 Bladenboro 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 Bladenboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bladenboro — the short answer
Bladenboro, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Bladen County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Bladenboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bladenboro's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bladenboro
Each reading below is measured for Bladenboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBladenboro runs about 263 days between hard freezes (read from Bladen County, the closest normal to Bladenboro) — 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
MeasuredBladenboro 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 Bladenboro is in
Bladenboro sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bladenboro's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bladen County is mostly Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bladenboro
Every plant below cleared Bladenboro's own zone 8b and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bladenboro?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Bladenboro
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bladenboro checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 56 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bladenboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bladenboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUNDO BLADENBOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- C.W.'S AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PANTRY 3156 (ETNA 381)Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ROBERTS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BL-029Nitrate · 2500 ft
- FOOD PLUS 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BRISSON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BLADENBORO CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GREIF BROTHERS CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BL-028Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- INNOVATIVE MACHINE TECHNOLOGY OF NCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- INNOVATIVE MACHINE TECHNOLOGY OF NCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bladenboro'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 Bladenboro.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Bladenboro
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bladenboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bladenboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bladenboro, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Bladenboro. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bladenboro
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 Bladenboro average
Your land is one point inside Bladenboro
Everything above resolves to Bladenboro as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bladen 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 Bladenboro Average
Bladenboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bladenboro
- ●One soil character for all of Bladenboro
- ●Frost dates read at Bladenboro's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bladenboro's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bladenboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bladenboro, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bladenboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bladenboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bladenboro average
How we know this about Bladenboro
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 Bladen 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 Bladenboro
When does frost risk typically end in Bladenboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bladenboro typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Bladenboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bladenboro typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bladenboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bladenboro sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 13, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bladenboro?
The federal record around Bladenboro shows 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Bladenboro?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bladenboro's scale — its 8b band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bladenboro'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 Bladenboro’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bladenboro's own scale — the 1,418 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bladenboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bladenboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bladenboro's boundary and the 1,418 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bladenboro sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bladenboro checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bladenboro has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bladen County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bladenboro's 1,418 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bladen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bladen 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 Bladen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bladenboro's 1,418 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bladenboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,418 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 Bladenboro-wide figureread your own land →