Clarkton, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Clarkton, 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 Clarkton 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 Clarkton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clarkton — the short answer
Clarkton, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 797 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 797 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 Bladen County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Clarkton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clarkton's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clarkton
Each reading below is measured for Clarkton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsClarkton runs about 263 days between hard freezes (read from Bladen County, the closest normal to Clarkton) — 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
MeasuredClarkton 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 Clarkton is in
Clarkton sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clarkton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bladen County is mostly Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Clarkton
Every plant below cleared Clarkton's own zone 8b and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clarkton?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 Clarkton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Clarkton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 47 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Clarkton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clarkton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUTLERS BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CLARKTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BL-022 IN CLARKTON, NCNitrate · 900 ft
- CLARKTON BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SCOTCHMAN 3010Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BL-023 IN CLARKTON, NCNitrate · 2000 ft
- TIME SAVER 2 - CLARKTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WARDS CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CLARKTON SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SPAULDING EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FREEMAN'S AMOCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BYRDFIELD FARMS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clarkton'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 Clarkton.
Total Sites
97
within ~10 miles of Clarkton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clarkton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clarkton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clarkton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 65 sites within ~10 miles of Clarkton. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Clarkton
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 Clarkton average
Your land is one point inside Clarkton
Everything above resolves to Clarkton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 797 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bladen 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 Clarkton Average
Clarkton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Clarkton
- ●One soil character for all of Clarkton
- ●Frost dates read at Clarkton's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clarkton's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clarkton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clarkton, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clarkton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clarkton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clarkton average
How we know this about Clarkton
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 Bladen 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 Clarkton
When does frost risk typically end in Clarkton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clarkton typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Clarkton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clarkton typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clarkton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clarkton sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 13, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clarkton?
The federal record around Clarkton shows 97 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Clarkton?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clarkton's scale — its 8b band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clarkton'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 Clarkton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Clarkton's own scale — the 797 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clarkton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clarkton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clarkton's boundary and the 797 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Clarkton sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Clarkton checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Clarkton has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bladen County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clarkton's 797 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bladen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bladen 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 Bladen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clarkton's 797 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clarkton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 797 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Clarkton-wide figureread your own land →