Haywood County, in North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Haywood County lies within the Blue Ridge and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Haywood County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Haywood 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 Haywood County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Haywood County — the short answer
Haywood County, North Carolina: USDA zone 7a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 354K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 354K 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 7a is Haywood County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Haywood County's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Haywood County
Across a year, Haywood County accumulates about 2,664 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,726 fewer than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 6 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.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Haywood County
Across Haywood County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Plott, Edneyville, and Saunook are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.5–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
3%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Haywood County
The USDA soil survey maps 93% of Haywood County as well drained — but another 4% drains differently: 2% moderately well drained, 2% somewhat excessively drained.
Plott is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Edneyville (9%) and Saunook (9%).
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 Haywood County
Each reading below is measured for Haywood 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 Haywood County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Haywood County runs about pH 4.5–5.3, 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
MeasuredHaywood County runs about 184 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHaywood County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Haywood County is in
Haywood County sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Haywood County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Haywood County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 184-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 Haywood County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Haywood County
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Haywood County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle6 documented records
- monarch butterfly17 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Haywood County
USGS estimates 7,083 lb of 2,4-d on Haywood County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (5,096 lb) and Atrazine (2,552 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 Haywood County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Haywood County — 273 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Superfund sites. 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 Haywood 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 Haywood County
Closest first, across Haywood County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAMS MART 45Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTER 393Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- ELLERBE R.T.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- ENKA MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- WAYNESVILLE HAZELWOOD WASTEWATERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- APPLACHIAN SITEWORKToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- RED BARN CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- JUNALUSKA EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- SORRELLS MERCHANDISING, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- HAYWOOD TRACTOR & IMP. CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- ROADRUNNER MARKET 184Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- RACEWAY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Haywood 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 Haywood County.
Sources Checked
across Haywood County
Severity Distribution
across Haywood County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Haywood County, two things run higher than the national average across Haywood County — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (206 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Haywood 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 Haywood County average
Your land is one point inside Haywood County
Everything above resolves to Haywood County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 354K 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 Haywood County Average
Haywood County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Haywood County
- ●One soil character for all of Haywood County
- ●Frost dates read at Haywood County's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Haywood County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Haywood County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Haywood County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Haywood County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Haywood County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Haywood County average
How we know this about Haywood 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 Haywood County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Haywood County
When does frost risk typically end in Haywood County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Haywood County typically lands around Apr 21, 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 May 12.
How long is the growing season in Haywood County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Haywood County sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 8, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Haywood County?
The federal record around Haywood County is a meaningful one — 273 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (206), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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.
Everything above is measured at Haywood County's scale — its 7a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Haywood 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 Haywood County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Haywood County's own scale — its own ~184-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 273 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Haywood County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Haywood County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Haywood CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 273 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Haywood County's boundary and the 354,278 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Haywood County sitting wholly inside the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Haywood County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Haywood 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 Haywood County — the ~184 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 Haywood County's 354,278 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 273 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 Haywood Countyread your own land →