Edenton, 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.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Edenton, 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 Edenton 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 Edenton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Edenton — the short answer
Edenton, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- Chowan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Chowan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Chowan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Chowan County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Edenton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Edenton's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Edenton
Each reading below is measured for Edenton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEdenton runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Chowan County, the closest normal to Edenton) — 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
MeasuredEdenton 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 Edenton is in
Edenton sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Edenton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chowan County.
What Grows in Edenton
Every plant below cleared Edenton's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Edenton?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Edenton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Edenton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 46 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Edenton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Edenton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EAST COAST EQUIPMENT LLCBrownfields · 800 ft
- HOBBS IMPLEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- EASTERN FUELS OF EDENTON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- OAKUM ST BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PANTRY DBA KANGAROO EXPRESS 3164Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- EDENTON EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BRIDGE TURN EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JOHN HANCOCK MUTUAL LIFE INS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHOWAN COUNTY SCHOOL MAINT. SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JOHN A HOLMES HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ASHLEY WELDING & MACHINE CO, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- J'S GRO.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Edenton'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 Edenton.
Total Sites
172
within ~10 miles of Edenton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Edenton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Edenton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Edenton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 64 sites within ~10 miles of Edenton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Edenton
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 Edenton average
Your land is one point inside Edenton
Everything above resolves to Edenton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Chowan 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 Edenton Average
Edenton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Edenton
- ●One soil character for all of Edenton
- ●Frost dates read at Edenton's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Edenton's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Edenton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Edenton, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Edenton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Edenton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Edenton average
How we know this about Edenton
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 Chowan 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 Edenton
When does frost risk typically end in Edenton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Edenton typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Edenton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Edenton typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Edenton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Edenton sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 15, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Edenton?
The federal record around Edenton shows 172 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles 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 Edenton?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Edenton's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Edenton'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 Edenton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Edenton's own scale — the 3,440 acres it covers and 172 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Edenton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 172 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Edenton, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Edenton's boundary and the 3,440 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Edenton's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Edenton checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Edenton has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Chowan County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Edenton's 3,440 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chowan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chowan 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 Chowan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Edenton's 3,440 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Edenton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,440 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Edenton-wide figureread your own land →
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