Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Boiling Spring Lakes, 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 Boiling Spring Lakes 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 Boiling Spring Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Boiling Spring Lakes — the short answer
Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- Brunswick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Brunswick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- Brunswick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 15K 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 Brunswick County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Boiling Spring Lakes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Boiling Spring Lakes's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Boiling Spring Lakes
Each reading below is measured for Boiling Spring Lakes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBoiling Spring Lakes runs about 265 days between hard freezes (read from Brunswick County, the closest normal to Boiling Spring Lakes) — 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
MeasuredBoiling Spring Lakes 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 Boiling Spring Lakes is in
Boiling Spring Lakes sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Boiling Spring Lakes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brunswick County.
What Grows in Boiling Spring Lakes
Every plant below cleared Boiling Spring Lakes's own zone 8b and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Boiling Spring Lakes?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Boiling Spring Lakes
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Boiling Spring Lakes, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Boiling Spring Lakes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Boiling Spring Lakes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAPE FEAR BROADCASTING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CITY OF BOILING SPRING LAKESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KOPPS KWIK STOP 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BOILING SPRING LAKES MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- BR-269Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- BR-112 RS2 FF32 Y-1 BOILING SPRINGS, NC PEEDEENitrate · 2.1 mi
- BR-113 BOILING SPRINGS RS2 FF32 Y-2Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- CAPTN' PETES SEAFOOD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- BISHOP RADIO TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- OLDE BRUNSWICK GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- LARRY'S GAS & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- FISH PROCESSING PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Boiling Spring Lakes'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 Boiling Spring Lakes.
Total Sites
206
within ~10 miles of Boiling Spring Lakes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Boiling Spring Lakes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Boiling Spring Lakes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Boiling Spring Lakes, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Boiling Spring Lakes — PFAS (5 sites) and Nitrate (94 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Boiling Spring Lakes
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 Boiling Spring Lakes average
Your land is one point inside Boiling Spring Lakes
Everything above resolves to Boiling Spring Lakes as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 15K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Brunswick County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Boiling Spring Lakes Average
Boiling Spring Lakes Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Boiling Spring Lakes
- ●One soil character for all of Boiling Spring Lakes
- ●Frost dates read at Boiling Spring Lakes's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Boiling Spring Lakes's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Boiling Spring Lakes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Boiling Spring Lakes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Boiling Spring Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Boiling Spring Lakes average
How we know this about Boiling Spring Lakes
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Brunswick 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Boiling Spring Lakes
When does frost risk typically end in Boiling Spring Lakes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Boiling Spring Lakes typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Boiling Spring Lakes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Boiling Spring Lakes typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Boiling Spring Lakes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Boiling Spring Lakes sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 14, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Boiling Spring Lakes?
The federal record around Boiling Spring Lakes is a meaningful one — 206 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (94), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Boiling Spring Lakes?
From about Oct 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 Nov 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Boiling Spring Lakes's scale — its 8b band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Boiling Spring Lakes'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 Boiling Spring Lakes’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Boiling Spring Lakes's own scale — the 15,420 acres it covers and 206 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Boiling Spring Lakes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 206 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Boiling Spring Lakes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Boiling Spring Lakes's boundary and the 15,420 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Boiling Spring Lakes's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Boiling Spring Lakeslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Boiling Spring Lakes has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Brunswick County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Boiling Spring Lakes's 15,420 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brunswick County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brunswick 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 Brunswick County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Boiling Spring Lakes's 15,420 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Boiling Spring Lakes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,420 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Boiling Spring Lakes-wide figureread your own land →
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