Transylvania 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Transylvania 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
Transylvania County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Transylvania 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 Transylvania County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Transylvania County — the short answer
Transylvania County, North Carolina: USDA zone 7a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 242K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 242K 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 Transylvania County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Transylvania County's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Transylvania County
Across a year, Transylvania County accumulates about 2,684 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,706 fewer than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 7 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 Transylvania County
Across Transylvania County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Ashe, Chestnut, and Edneyville are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Transylvania County
The USDA soil survey maps 65% of Transylvania County as well drained — but another 34% drains differently: 29% somewhat excessively drained, 2% very poorly drained.
Ashe is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Chestnut (13%) and Edneyville (13%).
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 Transylvania County
Each reading below is measured for Transylvania 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 Transylvania 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 Transylvania County runs about pH 4.8–5.3, 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
MeasuredTransylvania County runs about 207 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
MeasuredTransylvania 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 Transylvania County is in
Transylvania 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 Transylvania County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Transylvania County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 207-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 Transylvania County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Transylvania County
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Transylvania County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle5 documented records
- monarch butterfly126 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Transylvania County
USGS estimates 1,209 lb of Glyphosate on Transylvania County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (1,112 lb) and Atrazine (599 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 Transylvania County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Transylvania County — 142 documented sites across 6 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 Transylvania 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 Transylvania County
Closest first, across Transylvania County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARMONY KORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- CITY OF BREVARD WATER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- GAIA HERBS INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- KORNER MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- GENIE PRODUCTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 3.0 mi
- MCCALL'S GROCERY & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- PISGAH ASTRONOMICAL RES INSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- BREVARD, CITY OFPFAS · 3.6 mi
- CONNESTEE FALLSPFAS · 3.6 mi
- NC DOT #1415 (DIV FOURTEEN)Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- GLEN CANNON COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- NEW EXCELSIOR, INC.Brownfields · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Transylvania 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 Transylvania County.
Total Sites
142
across Transylvania County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Transylvania County
Severity Distribution
across Transylvania County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Transylvania County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 103 sites across Transylvania County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Transylvania 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 Transylvania County average
Your land is one point inside Transylvania County
Everything above resolves to Transylvania County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 242K 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 Transylvania County Average
Transylvania County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Transylvania County
- ●One soil character for all of Transylvania County
- ●Frost dates read at Transylvania County's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Transylvania County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Transylvania County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Transylvania County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Transylvania County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Transylvania County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Transylvania County average
How we know this about Transylvania 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 Transylvania County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Transylvania County
When does frost risk typically end in Transylvania County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Transylvania County typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
How long is the growing season in Transylvania County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Transylvania County sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 16, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Transylvania County?
The federal record around Transylvania County is a meaningful one — 142 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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 Transylvania County's scale — its 7a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Transylvania 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 Transylvania County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Transylvania County's own scale — its own ~207-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 142 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Transylvania County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Transylvania County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Transylvania CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 142 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Transylvania County's boundary and the 242,153 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Transylvania County sitting wholly inside the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Transylvania County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Transylvania 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 Transylvania County — the ~207 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 Transylvania County's 242,153 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 142 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 Transylvania Countyread your own land →