Carrboro, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Carrboro, 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 Carrboro 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 Carrboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carrboro — the short answer
Carrboro, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- 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 8a is Carrboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carrboro's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carrboro
Each reading below is measured for Carrboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarrboro runs about 243 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
MeasuredCarrboro sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Carrboro is in
Carrboro sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Carrboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Carrboro
Every plant below cleared Carrboro's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carrboro?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Carrboro
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Carrboro, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Carrboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carrboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CROWN NC-569Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- HAN-DEE HUGO'S 70Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CIRCLE K 2720941Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Haw Branch Road ProspectMining · 0.8 mi
- CARRBORO MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CAROLINA CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- RIGGS BEE'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- RIGGSBEE'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CARRBORO - SMALL MS4Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- TOWN OF CARRBOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SHORT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- RANGEWOOD PUMPING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carrboro'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 Carrboro.
Total Sites
437
within ~10 miles of Carrboro
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carrboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carrboro
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Carrboro
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 Carrboro average
Your land is one point inside Carrboro
Everything above resolves to Carrboro 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 Carrboro Average
Carrboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Carrboro
- ●One soil character for all of Carrboro
- ●Frost dates read at Carrboro's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carrboro's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carrboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carrboro, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carrboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carrboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carrboro average
How we know this about Carrboro
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 Carrboro’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 Carrboro
When does frost risk typically end in Carrboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carrboro typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Carrboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carrboro typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carrboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carrboro sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Oct 31, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carrboro?
The federal record around Carrboro is a meaningful one — 437 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (239), the nearest Brownfields 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 Carrboro?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carrboro's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carrboro'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 Carrboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Carrboro's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,148 acres it covers and 437 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carrboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carrboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 14 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 437 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carrboro, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carrboro's boundary and the 4,148 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carrboro's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Carrborolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carrboro's 4,148 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange 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 Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carrboro's 4,148 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carrboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,148 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Carrboro-wide figureread your own land →