Denver, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Denver, 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 Denver 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 Denver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Denver — the short answer
Denver, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 8a is Denver's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Denver's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Denver
Each reading below is measured for Denver itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDenver runs about 241 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
MeasuredDenver 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 Denver is in
Denver sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Denver's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in Denver
Every plant below cleared Denver's own zone 8a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Denver?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Denver
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Denver, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Denver
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Denver. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARGOS READY MIX DENVER CONCRETE PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- CONCRETE PIPE AND PRECAST - DENVERToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- WIREWAY/HUSKY CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- WIREWAY/HUSKY CORPORATIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- RADIUS MOTORSPORTS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- REA CONTRACTING DENVER HMABrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MARTIN MARIETTA AGGR DENVERBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- LOWES DRY CLEANERS - DCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- DENVER PLUMBINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- DENVER MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CVS 5588Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- CROSSRAADS SUNMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Denver'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 Denver.
Total Sites
256
within ~10 miles of Denver
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
20 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Denver
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Denver
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Denver, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Denver — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (20 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Denver
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 Denver average
Your land is one point inside Denver
Everything above resolves to Denver as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Denver Average
Denver Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Denver
- ●One soil character for all of Denver
- ●Frost dates read at Denver's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Denver's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Denver
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Denver, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Denver averages can't show:
We read public map data around Denver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Denver average
How we know this about Denver
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 Denver’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 Denver
When does frost risk typically end in Denver?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Denver typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Denver?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Denver typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Denver?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Denver sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 31, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Denver?
The federal record around Denver is a meaningful one — 256 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (147), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Denver?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Denver's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Denver'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 Denver’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Denver's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,793 acres it covers and 256 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Denver's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Denver's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 14 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 256 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Denver, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Denver's boundary and the 3,793 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Denver's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Denverlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Denver's 3,793 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Denver's 3,793 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Denver you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,793 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Denver-wide figureread your own land →