Cerro Gordo, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cerro Gordo, 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 Cerro Gordo 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 Cerro Gordo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cerro Gordo — the short answer
Cerro Gordo, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 507 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- Columbus County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Columbus County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- Columbus County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 507 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 Columbus County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Cerro Gordo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cerro Gordo's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cerro Gordo
Each reading below is measured for Cerro Gordo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCerro Gordo runs about 270 days between hard freezes (read from Columbus County, the closest normal to Cerro Gordo) — 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
MeasuredCerro Gordo 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 Cerro Gordo is in
Cerro Gordo sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cerro Gordo's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Columbus County is mostly Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cerro Gordo
Every plant below cleared Cerro Gordo's own zone 8b and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cerro Gordo?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Cerro Gordo
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cerro Gordo checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 60 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cerro Gordo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cerro Gordo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- JAMES JENKINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MINI-EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- J. MARSHALL POWELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SHELLEYS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- MCPHERSON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- 701 EXXON WERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- FIVE POINT GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- SERVICE TELEPHONE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- ELLIS MEARES & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- CAROLINA TIRE SALESSuperfund · 5.6 mi
- MYRTLE DESK CO-CHADBORNToxics Release Inventory · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cerro Gordo'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 Cerro Gordo.
Total Sites
96
within ~10 miles of Cerro Gordo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cerro Gordo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cerro Gordo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cerro Gordo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cerro Gordo — Superfund (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (65 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cerro Gordo
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 Cerro Gordo average
Your land is one point inside Cerro Gordo
Everything above resolves to Cerro Gordo as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 507 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Columbus 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 Cerro Gordo Average
Cerro Gordo Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cerro Gordo
- ●One soil character for all of Cerro Gordo
- ●Frost dates read at Cerro Gordo's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cerro Gordo's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cerro Gordo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cerro Gordo, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cerro Gordo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cerro Gordo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cerro Gordo average
How we know this about Cerro Gordo
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 Columbus 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 Cerro Gordo
When does frost risk typically end in Cerro Gordo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cerro Gordo typically lands around Mar 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Cerro Gordo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cerro Gordo typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cerro Gordo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cerro Gordo sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 16, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cerro Gordo?
The federal record around Cerro Gordo is a meaningful one — 96 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Cerro Gordo?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cerro Gordo's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cerro Gordo'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 Cerro Gordo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cerro Gordo's own scale — the 507 acres it covers and 96 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cerro Gordo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 96 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cerro Gordo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cerro Gordo's boundary and the 507 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cerro Gordo sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cerro Gordo checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cerro Gordo has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Columbus County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cerro Gordo's 507 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Columbus County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Columbus 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 Columbus County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cerro Gordo's 507 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cerro Gordo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 507 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Cerro Gordo-wide figureread your own land →
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