Deep Run, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Deep Run, 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 Deep Run 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 Deep Run — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Deep Run — the short answer
Deep Run, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- Lenoir County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Lenoir County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- Lenoir County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Lenoir County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Deep Run's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deep Run's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deep Run
Each reading below is measured for Deep Run itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDeep Run runs about 255 days between hard freezes (read from Lenoir County, the closest normal to Deep Run) — 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
MeasuredDeep Run 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 Deep Run is in
Deep Run sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Deep Run's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lenoir County.
What Grows in Deep Run
Every plant below cleared Deep Run's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deep Run?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Deep Run
Survey cells within 31 miles of Deep Run checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 63 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Deep Run
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deep Run. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ODELL HILL & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HUMPHREY'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PAT'S CASH GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MRS. P.A. NOBLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- NOBLES MILL, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DEEP RUN SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- MIKE'S SERVICE CENTER, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- NORWOODS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- NOBLES COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- FRIENDLY MART 19Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- KENNETH BALL - STRABANE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- GUARDIAN PHARMACY OF EASTERN NORTH CAROLINABrownfields · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deep Run'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 Deep Run.
Total Sites
137
within ~10 miles of Deep Run
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deep Run
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deep Run
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deep Run, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Deep Run. 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.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Deep Run
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 Deep Run average
Your land is one point inside Deep Run
Everything above resolves to Deep Run as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lenoir County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Deep Run Average
Deep Run Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Deep Run
- ●One soil character for all of Deep Run
- ●Frost dates read at Deep Run's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deep Run's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deep Run
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deep Run, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deep Run averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deep Run — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deep Run average
How we know this about Deep Run
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 Lenoir County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Deep Run
When does frost risk typically end in Deep Run?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deep Run typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Deep Run?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deep Run typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deep Run?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deep Run sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 11, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deep Run?
The federal record around Deep Run is a meaningful one — 137 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Deep Run?
From about Oct 26 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 Nov 25 (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 Nov 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deep Run's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deep Run'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 Deep Run’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Deep Run's own scale — the 1,816 acres it covers and 137 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deep Run's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 137 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deep Run, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deep Run's boundary and the 1,816 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deep Run's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Deep Run checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Deep Run has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lenoir County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deep Run's 1,816 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lenoir County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lenoir 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 Lenoir County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deep Run's 1,816 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deep Run you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,816 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles 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 Deep Run-wide figureread your own land →