Wilkes County, in North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Wilkes 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
Wilkes County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Wilkes 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 Wilkes County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wilkes County — the short answer
Wilkes County, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 482K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 482K 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 Wilkes County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilkes County's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Wilkes County
Across a year, Wilkes County accumulates about 3,737 growing degree days above 50°F, about 653 fewer than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 18 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 2,171 hours below 45°F, 408 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 Wilkes County
Across Wilkes County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Fairview, Evard, and Cowee are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a gravelly sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.7, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
9%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Wilkes County
The USDA soil survey maps 95% of Wilkes County as well drained — but another 5% drains differently: 3% somewhat poorly drained, 1% moderately well drained.
Fairview is the most extensive named soil at 33% of mapped acres, then Evard (16%) and Cowee (12%).
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 Wilkes County
Each reading below is measured for Wilkes 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 Wilkes 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 Wilkes County runs about pH 5.0–5.7, 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
MeasuredWilkes 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
MeasuredWilkes 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 Wilkes County is in
Wilkes County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Piedmont (53%) and Blue Ridge (47%). 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 Wilkes County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Wilkes 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 Wilkes 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 Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Wilkes County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Wilkes County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly18 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Wilkes County
USGS estimates 21,253 lb of 2,4-d on Wilkes County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (9,913 lb) and Glyphosate (9,004 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 Wilkes County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Wilkes County — 375 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 24 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Wilkes 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 Wilkes County
Closest first, across Wilkes County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAIRPLAINS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FAST TRACK 107Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LOVETTE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #7317Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- RUN-IN 811Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- NORTH WILKESBORO, TOWN OFPFAS · 1.1 mi
- BLUE RIDGE WATER ASSOCIATIONPFAS · 1.1 mi
- BROADWAY WATER ASSOCIATIONPFAS · 1.1 mi
- MULBERRY-FAIRPLAINS WTR ASSOCPFAS · 1.1 mi
- ROYALS MUSTANG #41Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BROWNE'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CITY CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilkes 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 Wilkes County.
Total Sites
375
across Wilkes County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
24 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Wilkes County
Severity Distribution
across Wilkes County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilkes County, two things run higher than the national average across Wilkes County — PFAS (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (286 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Wilkes 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 Wilkes County average
Your land is one point inside Wilkes County
Everything above resolves to Wilkes County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 482K 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 Wilkes County Average
Wilkes County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Wilkes County
- ●One soil character for all of Wilkes County
- ●Frost dates read at Wilkes County's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilkes County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Wilkes County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilkes County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilkes County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilkes County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilkes County average
How we know this about Wilkes 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 Wilkes County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Wilkes County
When does frost risk typically end in Wilkes County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilkes County typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
How long is the growing season in Wilkes County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilkes County sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 23, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilkes County?
The federal record around Wilkes County is a meaningful one — 375 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (286), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Wilkes County's scale — its 7b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilkes 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 Wilkes County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Wilkes County's own scale — its own ~224-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 375 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilkes County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilkes 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 Wilkes CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 375 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Wilkes County's boundary and the 482,353 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 Wilkes County spans, Piedmont the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Wilkes County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Wilkes 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 Wilkes 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 Wilkes County's 482,353 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 375 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 Wilkes Countyread your own land →