Efland, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Efland, 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 Efland 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 Efland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Efland — the short answer
Efland, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Efland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Efland's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Efland
Each reading below is measured for Efland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEfland runs about 242 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
MeasuredEfland 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 Efland is in
Efland sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Efland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Efland
Every plant below cleared Efland's own zone 8a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Efland?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 15 — 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 Efland
Survey cells within 31 miles of Efland checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Efland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Efland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EFLAND SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- EFLAND FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CIRCLE K 2724139Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CAMP CHESTNUT RIDGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EFLAND FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- NUTRENA FREDS (CARGILL NEUTRENA)Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MRS C W BROWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BREEZE THRU #26Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NC DOT - HILLSOROUGH (DIV SEVEN)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CIRCLE K 2720818Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- GRAHAM'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- RALPH V. TURNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Efland'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 Efland.
Total Sites
368
within ~10 miles of Efland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Efland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Efland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Efland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Efland — Toxics Release Inventory (25 sites) and Nitrate (96 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Efland
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 Efland average
Your land is one point inside Efland
Everything above resolves to Efland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Efland Average
Efland Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Efland
- ●One soil character for all of Efland
- ●Frost dates read at Efland's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Efland's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Efland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Efland, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Efland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Efland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Efland average
How we know this about Efland
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 Efland’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 Efland
When does frost risk typically end in Efland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Efland 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 Efland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Efland typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Efland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Efland sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 1, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Efland?
The federal record around Efland is a meaningful one — 368 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (197), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Efland?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Efland's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Efland'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 Efland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Efland's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,140 acres it covers and 368 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Efland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Efland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 15 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 368 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Efland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Efland's boundary and the 1,140 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Efland's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Efland checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Efland's 1,140 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange 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 Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Efland's 1,140 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Efland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,140 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Efland-wide figureread your own land →
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