Crossnore, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Crossnore, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Crossnore lot. 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 Crossnore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crossnore — the short answer
Crossnore, North Carolina: USDA zone 7a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 287 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 287 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Crossnore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crossnore's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crossnore
Each reading below is measured for Crossnore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrossnore runs about 188 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCrossnore 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 Crossnore is in
Crossnore sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Crossnore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Avery County.
What Grows in Crossnore
Every plant below cleared Crossnore's own zone 7a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crossnore?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Crossnore
Survey cells within 31 miles of Crossnore checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 40 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Crossnore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crossnore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- R-3 SHOP-DIV.OF FOREST RESOURCESUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- LINVILLE RIVER NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- ALDRIDGE & LOVE SERV STATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- NEWLAND EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- UNDERWOOD & WELD CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CARLOS & SONS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CROSSNORE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SLUDER FLORAL CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CROSSNORE SHELL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CROSSNORE WILDLIFE MGT. DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- IRC INCBrownfields · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crossnore'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 Crossnore.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Crossnore
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crossnore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crossnore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crossnore, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Crossnore — Mining (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (70 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Crossnore
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 Crossnore average
Your land is one point inside Crossnore
Everything above resolves to Crossnore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 287 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Crossnore Average
Crossnore Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Crossnore
- ●One soil character for all of Crossnore
- ●Frost dates read at Crossnore's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crossnore's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crossnore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crossnore, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crossnore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crossnore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crossnore average
How we know this about Crossnore
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Crossnore’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Crossnore
When does frost risk typically end in Crossnore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crossnore typically lands around Apr 19, 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 May 10.
When is the first frost in Crossnore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crossnore typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crossnore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crossnore sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 10, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crossnore?
The federal record around Crossnore shows 88 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crossnore?
From about Sep 24 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crossnore's scale — its 7a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crossnore's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Crossnore’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Crossnore's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 287 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crossnore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crossnore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 24 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crossnore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crossnore's boundary and the 287 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crossnore's own centroid, the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Crossnore checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crossnore's 287 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Avery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Avery County
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Avery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crossnore's 287 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crossnore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 287 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Crossnore-wide figureread your own land →