Wake County, in North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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.
Wake 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
Wake County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Wake 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 Wake County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wake County — the short answer
Wake County, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 534K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 534K 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 Wake County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wake County's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Wake County
Across a year, Wake County accumulates about 4,478 growing degree days above 50°F, about 88 more than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 52 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 1,707 hours below 45°F, 56 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 Wake County
Across Wake County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Pacolet, Cecil, and Wedowee are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.8, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
15%
Hydric soils
7%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Wake County
The USDA soil survey maps 59% of Wake County as well drained — but another 28% drains differently: 15% moderately well drained, 9% somewhat poorly drained.
Pacolet is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Cecil (11%) and Wedowee (10%).
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 Wake County
Each reading below is measured for Wake 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 Wake 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 Wake County runs about pH 5.3–5.8, 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
MeasuredWake County runs about 258 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
MeasuredWake 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 Wake County is in
Wake County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Piedmont (91%) and Southeastern Plains (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 Wake County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Wake County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 258-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 Wake County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Wake County
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Wake County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle21 documented records
- monarch butterfly340 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Wake County
USGS estimates 43,519 lb of Glyphosate on Wake County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (15,061 lb) and 2,4-d (12,493 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 Wake County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Wake County — 2,449 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 22 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Wake County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Wake County
Closest first, across Wake County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PEACE VILLAGE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CAR SHOP FOOD & DAIRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- BUSINESS OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- ST. MARY'S SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 4-0129Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- RALEIGH OFFICE SUPPLY CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PINE STATE CREAMERY CO.Toxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- PINE STATE CREAMERY COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- DOROTHEA DIX HOSPITALBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CAROLINA WELDING SUPPLIES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PACIFIC PRIDE COMMERCIAL FUELINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- NORWOOD OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wake 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 Wake County.
Sources Checked
across Wake County
Severity Distribution
across Wake County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Wake 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 Wake County average
Your land is one point inside Wake County
Everything above resolves to Wake County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 534K 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 Wake County Average
Wake County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Wake County
- ●One soil character for all of Wake County
- ●Frost dates read at Wake County's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wake County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Wake County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wake County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wake County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wake County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wake County average
How we know this about Wake 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 Wake County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Wake County
When does frost risk typically end in Wake County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wake County typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
How long is the growing season in Wake County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wake County sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 11, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wake County?
The federal record around Wake County runs heavier than most — 2,449 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,416), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Wake County's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wake 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 Wake County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Wake County's own scale — its own ~258-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 2,449 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wake County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wake County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Wake CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 2,449 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Wake County's boundary and the 534,257 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Wake County spans, Piedmont the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Wake County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Wake 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 Wake County — the ~258 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 Wake County's 534,257 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 2,449 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 Wake Countyread your own land →