Lenoir County, in North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Lenoir County lies within the North Carolina Inner Coastal Plain (Eastern NC row-crop belt) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lenoir County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lenoir 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 Lenoir County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lenoir County — the short answer
Lenoir County, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 255K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 255K 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 8b is Lenoir County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lenoir County's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Lenoir County
Across a year, Lenoir County accumulates about 4,895 growing degree days above 50°F, about 505 more than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 81 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 1,456 hours below 45°F, 307 fewer 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 Lenoir County
Across Lenoir County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Norfolk, Pocalla, and Rains are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.5–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
23%
Hydric soils
38%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lenoir County
The USDA soil survey maps 26% of Lenoir County as well drained — but another 73% drains differently: 23% poorly drained, 14% very poorly drained.
Norfolk is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Pocalla (11%) and Rains (7%).
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 Lenoir County
Each reading below is measured for Lenoir 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 Lenoir County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Lenoir 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 38% of Lenoir County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredLenoir County runs about 255 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
The kind of country Lenoir County is in
Lenoir County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (88%) and Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain (12%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Lenoir County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lenoir County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 255-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 Lenoir 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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Lenoir County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lenoir County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 68 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Lenoir County
USGS estimates 124,855 lb of Glyphosate on Lenoir County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (44,804 lb) and 2,4-d (34,569 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 Lenoir County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lenoir County — 486 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 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 Lenoir 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 Lenoir County
Closest first, across Lenoir County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRANCH TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FRIENDLY MART 20Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALTER RAMSEY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- JOE JONES TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EUBANKS INS SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KINSTON, CITY OFPFAS · 0.9 mi
- PANTRY STORE 905Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LENOIR CO SCH COMPL DIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SPEEDWAY #8298Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LENOIR SCH TRANSPORTATION DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LIGHTHOUSE FOOD MART 110Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PUBLIC SERVICE COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lenoir 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 Lenoir County.
Total Sites
486
across Lenoir County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Lenoir County
Severity Distribution
across Lenoir County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lenoir County, two things run higher than the national average across Lenoir County — Underground Storage Tanks (336 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Lenoir 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 Lenoir County average
Your land is one point inside Lenoir County
Everything above resolves to Lenoir County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 255K 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 Lenoir County Average
Lenoir County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Lenoir County
- ●One soil character for all of Lenoir County
- ●Frost dates read at Lenoir County's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lenoir County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lenoir County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lenoir County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lenoir County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lenoir County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lenoir County average
How we know this about Lenoir 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 Lenoir County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lenoir County
When does frost risk typically end in Lenoir County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lenoir County typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
How long is the growing season in Lenoir County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lenoir County sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 11, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lenoir County?
The federal record around Lenoir County is a meaningful one — 486 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (336), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Lenoir County's scale — its 8b band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lenoir 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 Lenoir County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Lenoir County's own scale — its own ~255-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 486 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lenoir County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lenoir County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lenoir CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 486 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lenoir County's boundary and the 255,415 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Lenoir County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lenoir 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 Lenoir County — the ~255 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 Lenoir County's 255,415 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 486 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 Lenoir Countyread your own land →