Delco, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Delco, 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 Delco 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 Delco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Delco — the short answer
Delco, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 965 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- Columbus County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Columbus County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- Columbus County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 965 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 Columbus County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Delco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Delco's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Delco
Each reading below is measured for Delco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDelco runs about 270 days between hard freezes (read from Columbus County, the closest normal to Delco) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDelco sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Delco is in
Delco sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Delco's own centroid rather than borrowed from Columbus County.
What Grows in Delco
Every plant below cleared Delco's own zone 8b and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Delco?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Delco
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Delco, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Delco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Delco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CO-039Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- DEW OIL CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SCOTCHMAN 3021Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ADR CHAIN SAW, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WRIGHT CHEMICAL CORPORATIONSuperfund · 1.4 mi
- RIEGELWOOD EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- KOCH SULFUR PRODUCTS COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- KAISER AGRIC. CHEMICALSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HAN-DEE HUGO'S 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- WEST FRASER, INC. - ARMOUR LUMBER MILLToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- WEST FRASER, INC. - ARMOUR LUMBER MILLBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- BAKELITE SYNTHETICSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Delco'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 Delco.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Delco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Delco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Delco, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Delco — Superfund (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Delco
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 Delco average
Your land is one point inside Delco
Everything above resolves to Delco as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 965 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Columbus 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 Delco Average
Delco Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Delco
- ●One soil character for all of Delco
- ●Frost dates read at Delco's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Delco's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Delco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Delco, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Delco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Delco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Delco average
How we know this about Delco
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 Columbus 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 Delco
When does frost risk typically end in Delco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Delco typically lands around Mar 5, 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 Mar 26.
When is the first frost in Delco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Delco typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Delco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Delco sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 16, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Delco?
The federal record around Delco is a meaningful one — 70 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Delco?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Delco's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Delco'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 Delco’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Delco's own scale — the 965 acres it covers and 70 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Delco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 70 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Delco, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Delco's boundary and the 965 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Delco's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Delcolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Delco has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Columbus County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Delco's 965 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Columbus County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Columbus 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 Columbus County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Delco's 965 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Delco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 965 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Delco-wide figureread your own land →