Dundarrach, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dundarrach, 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 Dundarrach 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 Dundarrach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dundarrach — the short answer
Dundarrach, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 842 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- Hoke County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- Hoke County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- Hoke County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 842 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 Hoke County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Dundarrach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dundarrach's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dundarrach
Each reading below is measured for Dundarrach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDundarrach runs about 248 days between hard freezes (read from Hoke County, the closest normal to Dundarrach) — 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
MeasuredDundarrach 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 Dundarrach is in
Dundarrach sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dundarrach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hoke County.
What Grows in Dundarrach
Every plant below cleared Dundarrach's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dundarrach?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Dundarrach
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dundarrach checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 72 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dundarrach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dundarrach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TYTON NC BIOFUELS, LLCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- JOHN BALFOURUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Z V PATE FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- BIG JIM'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- HARDIN SEPTIC TANK SERVUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- ERNEST MCEACHERNUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- REBECCA CARTHENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- I.J. WILLIAMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- SOUTH HOKE CON. STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- J.R. JONES GRAIN, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- CONFEDERATE AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- DUFFIE & ANTIOCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dundarrach'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 Dundarrach.
Total Sites
194
within ~10 miles of Dundarrach
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dundarrach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dundarrach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dundarrach, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dundarrach — PFAS (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (139 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 Dundarrach
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 Dundarrach average
Your land is one point inside Dundarrach
Everything above resolves to Dundarrach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 842 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hoke 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 Dundarrach Average
Dundarrach Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Dundarrach
- ●One soil character for all of Dundarrach
- ●Frost dates read at Dundarrach's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dundarrach's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dundarrach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dundarrach, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dundarrach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dundarrach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dundarrach average
How we know this about Dundarrach
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 Hoke 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 Dundarrach
When does frost risk typically end in Dundarrach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dundarrach typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Dundarrach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dundarrach typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dundarrach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dundarrach sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 5, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dundarrach?
The federal record around Dundarrach is a meaningful one — 194 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (139), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.9 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 Dundarrach?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dundarrach's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dundarrach'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 Dundarrach’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dundarrach's own scale — the 842 acres it covers and 194 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dundarrach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 194 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dundarrach, the closest Brownfields record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dundarrach's boundary and the 842 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dundarrach's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dundarrach checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Dundarrach has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hoke County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dundarrach's 842 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hoke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hoke 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 Hoke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dundarrach's 842 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dundarrach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 842 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.9 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 Dundarrach-wide figureread your own land →
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