Cary, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Cary, 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 Cary 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 Cary — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cary — the short answer
Cary, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 39K 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 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 39K 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 Cary's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cary's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cary
Each reading below is measured for Cary itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCary runs about 251 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
MeasuredCary 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 Cary is in
Cary sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cary's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wake County.
What Grows in Cary
Every plant below cleared Cary's own zone 8a and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cary?
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 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 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Cary
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from Cary, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cary
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cary. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BREEZE THRU #48Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NATIONAL TIRE & BATTERY #7327Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- HARRIS TEETER 494Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- ROSEMART 203Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- STOP N GO #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HAN-DEE HUGO'S 42Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CARY FIRE STATION 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- APRICA CHEMICAL COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- MAYNARD RD. AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- HARRIS WHOLESALE CARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- HAN-DEE HUGO'S 71Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SCOTIA CONSTRUCTION, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cary'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 Cary.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cary
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cary
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Cary
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 Cary average
Your land is one point inside Cary
Everything above resolves to Cary as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 39K 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 Cary Average
Cary Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cary
- ●One soil character for all of Cary
- ●Frost dates read at Cary's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cary's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cary
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cary, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cary averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cary — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cary average
How we know this about Cary
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 Cary’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 Cary
When does frost risk typically end in Cary?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cary 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 Cary?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cary typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cary?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cary sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 8, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cary?
The federal record around Cary runs heavier than most — 1,192 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (599), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cary?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cary's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cary'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 Cary’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cary's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 39,020 acres it covers and 1,192 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cary's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cary's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 22 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,192 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cary, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cary's boundary and the 39,020 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cary's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Carylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cary's 39,020 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wake 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 Wake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cary's 39,020 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cary you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 39,020 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 Cary-wide figureread your own land →
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