East Bend, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, 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 East Bend, 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 East Bend 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 East Bend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Bend — the short answer
East Bend, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 838 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 838 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 7b is East Bend's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Bend's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Bend
Each reading below is measured for East Bend itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Bend runs about 230 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
MeasuredEast Bend sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 East Bend is in
East Bend sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at East Bend's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yadkin County.
What Grows in East Bend
Every plant below cleared East Bend's own zone 7b and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Bend?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around East Bend
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from East Bend, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Bend
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Bend. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TD SMITHERMAN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- SPEEDWAY #6947Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- POINDEXTER'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CRAFT & GARDEN SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WEBB'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WISEMAN SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ENON BAPTIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- C.G. ANGELL EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- UNION HILL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BURCHETTE'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MIDWAY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- STEVEN'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Bend'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 East Bend.
Total Sites
169
within ~10 miles of East Bend
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Bend
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Bend
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Bend, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 133 sites within ~10 miles of East Bend. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in East Bend
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 East Bend average
Your land is one point inside East Bend
Everything above resolves to East Bend as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 838 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 East Bend Average
East Bend Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across East Bend
- ●One soil character for all of East Bend
- ●Frost dates read at East Bend's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Bend's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Bend
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Bend, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Bend averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Bend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Bend average
How we know this about East Bend
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 East Bend’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 East Bend
When does frost risk typically end in East Bend?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Bend typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in East Bend?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Bend typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Bend?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Bend sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 26, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Bend?
The federal record around East Bend shows 169 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), 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 East Bend?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Bend's scale — its 7b band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Bend'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 East Bend’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at East Bend's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 838 acres it covers and 169 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Bend's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Bend's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 9 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 169 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Bend, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Bend's boundary and the 838 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Bend's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of East Bendlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Bend's 838 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yadkin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yadkin 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 Yadkin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Bend's 838 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Bend you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 838 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 East Bend-wide figureread your own land →
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