Casar, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Casar, 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 Casar 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 Casar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Casar — the short answer
Casar, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Casar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Casar's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Casar
Each reading below is measured for Casar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCasar runs about 236 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
MeasuredCasar 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 Casar is in
Casar sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Casar's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cleveland County.
What Grows in Casar
Every plant below cleared Casar's own zone 8a and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Casar?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Casar
Survey cells within 31 miles of Casar checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 45 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Casar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Casar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOE S. WORTMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GARLAND BUFFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CASAR COMMUNITY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CARPENTER SPACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- BRACKETT OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MORIAH'S 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- WILLIS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- G & B OIL CO INC - ZEPHYRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MR. JOHN SELFUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- MEHERRIN AGRI & CHEM. CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- LAND APPLICATION SITE CL-08Toxics Release Inventory · 3.9 mi
- A.B. BLANTON, II DVMUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Casar'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 Casar.
Total Sites
90
within ~10 miles of Casar
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Casar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Casar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Casar, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Casar. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Casar
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 Casar average
Your land is one point inside Casar
Everything above resolves to Casar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Casar Average
Casar Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Casar
- ●One soil character for all of Casar
- ●Frost dates read at Casar's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Casar's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Casar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Casar, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Casar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Casar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Casar average
How we know this about Casar
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 Casar’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 Casar
When does frost risk typically end in Casar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Casar typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Casar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Casar typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Casar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Casar sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 28, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Casar?
The federal record around Casar shows 90 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Casar?
From about Oct 12 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 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 Nov 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Casar's scale — its 8a band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Casar'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 Casar’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Casar's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,120 acres it covers and 90 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Casar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Casar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 11 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 90 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Casar, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Casar's boundary and the 1,120 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Casar's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Casar checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Casar's 1,120 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cleveland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cleveland 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 Cleveland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Casar's 1,120 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Casar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,120 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Casar-wide figureread your own land →
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