Surry County, in North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Surry 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
Surry County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Surry 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 Surry County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Surry County — the short answer
Surry County, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 341K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 341K 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 7b is Surry County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Surry County's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Surry County
Across a year, Surry County accumulates about 3,629 growing degree days above 50°F, about 761 fewer than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 17 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 2,313 hours below 45°F, 550 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 Surry County
Across Surry County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Fairview, Woolwine, and Braddock are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–6.0, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
17%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Surry County
The USDA soil survey maps 97% of Surry County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 1% somewhat poorly drained.
Fairview is the most extensive named soil at 49% of mapped acres, then Woolwine (15%) and Braddock (4%).
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 Surry County
Each reading below is measured for Surry 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 Surry 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 Surry County runs about pH 5.0–6.0, 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
MeasuredSurry County runs about 224 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
MeasuredSurry County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Surry County is in
Surry County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Piedmont (91%) and Blue Ridge (9%). 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 Surry County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Surry County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 224-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 Surry County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Surry County
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Surry County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Surry County
USGS estimates 20,180 lb of 2,4-d on Surry County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (19,950 lb) and Atrazine (15,372 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 Surry County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Surry County — 467 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 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 Surry 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 Surry County
Closest first, across Surry County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALLISON TREE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LANDFORM CONSTRUCTION, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WASTE MANAGEMENT OF NW CAROLINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BLUE RIDGE COLLISION CENTERBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- QMT RCAGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- S & S ASSOCIATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CUPBOARD 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- BZ SUPERMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- NC DOT 1113 - (DIV ELEVEN)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- WAYNE POULTRY PROCESSING PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SURRY TELEPHONE MEMBERSHIP CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SPEEDWAY #6951Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Surry 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 Surry County.
Total Sites
467
across Surry County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Surry County
Severity Distribution
across Surry County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Surry County, two things run higher than the national average across Surry County — Underground Storage Tanks (359 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (29 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Surry 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 Surry County average
Your land is one point inside Surry County
Everything above resolves to Surry County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 341K 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 Surry County Average
Surry County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Surry County
- ●One soil character for all of Surry County
- ●Frost dates read at Surry County's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Surry County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Surry County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Surry County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Surry County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Surry County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Surry County average
How we know this about Surry 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 Surry County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Surry County
When does frost risk typically end in Surry County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Surry County typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Surry County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Surry County sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 25, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Surry County?
The federal record around Surry County is a meaningful one — 467 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (359), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Surry County's scale — its 7b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Surry 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 Surry County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Surry County's own scale — its own ~224-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 467 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Surry County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Surry County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Surry CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 467 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Surry County's boundary and the 340,892 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Surry County spans, Piedmont the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Surry County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Surry 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 Surry County — the ~224 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 Surry County's 340,892 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 467 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 Surry Countyread your own land →