Bogue, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Bogue, 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 Bogue 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 Bogue — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bogue — the short answer
Bogue, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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
- 2K 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 Bogue's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bogue's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bogue
Each reading below is measured for Bogue itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBogue runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Carteret County, the closest normal to Bogue) — 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
MeasuredBogue 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 Bogue is in
Bogue sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bogue's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carteret County.
What Grows in Bogue
Every plant below cleared Bogue'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 Bogue?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Bogue
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bogue checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 58 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bogue
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bogue. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- US MCALF BOGUEBrownfields · 550 ft
- RUSSELL (LAST OWNER/OPERATOR)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HANDY MART 173Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CT-203 BOGUE BANKS 2Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- TOWN OF EMERALD ISLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- HAMMOCKS BEACH SEAFOOD CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WATERS HARDWARE IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PINER'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- COASTAL MART INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LOWE'S OF CAPE CARTERET, NC #2436Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- ISLAND HARBOR MARINA, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bogue'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 Bogue.
Total Sites
99
within ~10 miles of Bogue
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bogue
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bogue
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bogue, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bogue — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (71 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bogue
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 Bogue average
Your land is one point inside Bogue
Everything above resolves to Bogue as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K 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 Bogue Average
Bogue Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bogue
- ●One soil character for all of Bogue
- ●Frost dates read at Bogue's scale: Feb 23 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bogue's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bogue
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bogue, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bogue averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bogue — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bogue average
How we know this about Bogue
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 Bogue
When does frost risk typically end in Bogue?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bogue 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 Bogue?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bogue 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 Bogue?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bogue 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 Bogue?
The federal record around Bogue shows 99 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), 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 Bogue?
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 Bogue's scale — its 8b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bogue'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 Bogue’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bogue's own scale — the 1,758 acres it covers and 99 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bogue's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 99 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bogue, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bogue's boundary and the 1,758 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 Bogue's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bogue checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bogue 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 Bogue's 1,758 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 Bogue's 1,758 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bogue you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,758 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 Bogue-wide figureread your own land →