Guilford County, in North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Guilford County lies within the Piedmont — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Guilford County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Guilford County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Guilford County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Guilford County — the short answer
Guilford County, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 413K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 413K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Guilford County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Guilford County's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Guilford County
Across a year, Guilford County accumulates about 4,182 growing degree days above 50°F, about 208 fewer than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 35 of North Carolina’s 100 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 1,878 hours below 45°F, 115 more than the North Carolina middle of 1,763. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Guilford County
Across Guilford County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Enon, Cecil, and Clifford are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.3, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
40%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Guilford County
The USDA soil survey maps 89% of Guilford County as well drained — but another 8% drains differently: 4% somewhat poorly drained, 3% moderately well drained.
Enon is the most extensive named soil at 26% of mapped acres, then Cecil (12%) and Clifford (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Guilford County
Each reading below is measured for Guilford County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Guilford County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Guilford County runs about pH 5.5–6.3, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredGuilford County runs about 245 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
MeasuredGuilford County 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 Guilford County is in
Guilford County sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Guilford County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Guilford County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 245-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile.
Is it too late to plant in Guilford County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Guilford County
Spotted lanternfly documented 12 miles from Guilford County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle4 documented records
- monarch butterfly253 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Guilford County
USGS estimates 6,884 lb of Glyphosate on Guilford County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (4,415 lb) and Dicamba (2,467 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Guilford County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Guilford County — 2,562 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 22 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Guilford County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Guilford County
Closest first, across Guilford County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-1 RENTALS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- HANES-LINEBERRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- HANES FUNERAL HOME, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WRANGLER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CUSTOM CARE CLEANERSBrownfields · 800 ft
- PERRY'S DOWNTOWN EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- TRIAD IMPORT SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- RAY HARRIS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GATE CITY LINCOLN MERCURYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PET DAIRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Guilford County'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 Guilford County.
Total Sites
2,562
across Guilford County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
22 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Guilford County
Severity Distribution
across Guilford County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Guilford County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 200 sites across Guilford County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Guilford County
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 Guilford County average
Your land is one point inside Guilford County
Everything above resolves to Guilford County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 413K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Guilford County Average
Guilford County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Guilford County
- ●One soil character for all of Guilford County
- ●Frost dates read at Guilford County's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Guilford County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Guilford County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Guilford County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Guilford County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Guilford County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Guilford County average
How we know this about Guilford County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Guilford County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Guilford County
When does frost risk typically end in Guilford County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Guilford County typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
How long is the growing season in Guilford County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Guilford County sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 3, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Guilford County?
The federal record around Guilford County is a meaningful one — 2,562 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,497), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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.
Everything above is measured at Guilford County's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Guilford County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads North Carolina's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Guilford County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Guilford County's own scale — its own ~245-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 2,562 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Guilford County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Guilford County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Guilford CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 2,562 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Guilford County's boundary and the 413,435 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Guilford County sitting wholly inside the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Guilford County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Guilford County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Guilford County — the ~245 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Guilford County's 413,435 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 2,562 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Guilford Countyread your own land →