Pender County, in North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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.
Pender County lies within Tidewater & Chesapeake — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Pender County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Pender 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 Pender County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pender County — the short answer
Pender County, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 558K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 558K 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 Pender County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pender County's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Pender County
Across a year, Pender County accumulates about 5,037 growing degree days above 50°F, about 647 more than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 91 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 1,357 hours below 45°F, 406 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 Pender County
Across Pender County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Croatan, Murville, and Rains are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.5–5.5, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B/D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
13%
Hydric soils
67%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Pender County
The USDA soil survey maps 34% of Pender County as poorly drained — but another 64% drains differently: 30% very poorly drained, 16% moderately well drained.
Croatan is the most extensive named soil at 11% of mapped acres, then Murville (10%) and Rains (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 Pender County
Each reading below is measured for Pender 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 Pender County are poorly drained, in hydrologic group B/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Pender County runs about pH 4.5–5.5, 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
MeasuredPender County runs about 249 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
MeasuredPender 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 Pender County is in
Pender County sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Pender County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Pender County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 249-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 Pender 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 Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Pender County
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Pender County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly16 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Pender County
USGS estimates 32,889 lb of Glyphosate on Pender County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (19,309 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (15,460 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 Pender County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Pender County — 206 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Pender 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 Pender County
Closest first, across Pender County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PE-038Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- OPTIONSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- V.O. CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WINDSOR FIBERGLASS, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
- GOLD BANNER MEATS INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.9 mi
- BURGAW DOLLAR PUMPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- S. BELL-BRGWNCMA-REAL ESTATE MANUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- BROWNS MINUTE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- WALGREENS #16158Brownfields · 3.1 mi
- SCOTCHMAN 59Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- PENDER PLATING COBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- PENDER PLATINGSuperfund · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pender 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 Pender County.
Total Sites
206
across Pender County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Pender County
Severity Distribution
across Pender County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Pender 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 Pender County average
Your land is one point inside Pender County
Everything above resolves to Pender County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 558K 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 Pender County Average
Pender County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Pender County
- ●One soil character for all of Pender County
- ●Frost dates read at Pender County's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pender County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Pender County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pender County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pender County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pender County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pender County average
How we know this about Pender 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 Pender County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Pender County
When does frost risk typically end in Pender County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pender County typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
How long is the growing season in Pender County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pender County sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 6, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pender County?
The federal record around Pender County is a meaningful one — 206 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Pender County's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pender 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 Pender County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Pender County's own scale — its own ~249-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 206 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pender County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pender County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Pender CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 206 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Pender County's boundary and the 557,632 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pender County sitting wholly inside the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Pender County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Pender 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 Pender County — the ~249 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 Pender County's 557,632 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 206 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 Pender Countyread your own land →