Cape Carteret, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cape Carteret, 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 Cape Carteret 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 Cape Carteret — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cape Carteret — the short answer
Cape Carteret, 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 Cape Carteret's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cape Carteret's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cape Carteret
Each reading below is measured for Cape Carteret itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCape Carteret runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Carteret County, the closest normal to Cape Carteret) — 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
MeasuredCape Carteret 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 Cape Carteret is in
Cape Carteret sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cape Carteret's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carteret County.
What Grows in Cape Carteret
Every plant below cleared Cape Carteret'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 Cape Carteret?
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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Cape Carteret
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cape Carteret checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 57 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cape Carteret
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cape Carteret. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAMMOCKS BEACH SEAFOOD CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- PINER'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WATERS HARDWARE IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- LOWE'S OF CAPE CARTERET, NC #2436Brownfields · 1600 ft
- HANDY MART 173Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- FOX HARBOUR STORES #16Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CIRCLE K 2723157Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- WALGREENS #10431Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- MCLEAN REAL ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WHITE OAK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RUSSELL (LAST OWNER/OPERATOR)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cape Carteret'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 Cape Carteret.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Cape Carteret
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cape Carteret
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cape Carteret
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cape Carteret, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cape Carteret — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (80 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.
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 Cape Carteret
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 Cape Carteret average
Your land is one point inside Cape Carteret
Everything above resolves to Cape Carteret 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 Cape Carteret Average
Cape Carteret Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cape Carteret
- ●One soil character for all of Cape Carteret
- ●Frost dates read at Cape Carteret's scale: Feb 23 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cape Carteret's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cape Carteret
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cape Carteret, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cape Carteret averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cape Carteret — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cape Carteret average
How we know this about Cape Carteret
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 Cape Carteret
When does frost risk typically end in Cape Carteret?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cape Carteret 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 Cape Carteret?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cape Carteret 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 Cape Carteret?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cape Carteret 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 Cape Carteret?
The federal record around Cape Carteret shows 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Cape Carteret?
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 Cape Carteret's scale — its 8b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cape Carteret'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 Cape Carteret’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cape Carteret's own scale — the 1,615 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cape Carteret's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cape Carteret, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cape Carteret's boundary and the 1,615 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 Cape Carteret's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cape Carteret checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cape Carteret 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 Cape Carteret's 1,615 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 Cape Carteret's 1,615 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cape Carteret you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,615 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 Cape Carteret-wide figureread your own land →
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