Elizabeth City, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elizabeth City, 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 Elizabeth City 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 Elizabeth City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elizabeth City — the short answer
Elizabeth City, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- Pasquotank County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Pasquotank County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- Pasquotank County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Pasquotank County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Elizabeth City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elizabeth City's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elizabeth City
Each reading below is measured for Elizabeth City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsElizabeth City runs about 267 days between hard freezes (read from Pasquotank County, the closest normal to Elizabeth City) — 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
MeasuredElizabeth City 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 Elizabeth City is in
Elizabeth City sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elizabeth City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pasquotank County.
What Grows in Elizabeth City
Every plant below cleared Elizabeth City's own zone 8a and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elizabeth City?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Elizabeth City
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Elizabeth City, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Elizabeth City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elizabeth City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PANTRY DBA KANGAROO EXPRESS 3165Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- LFM PROPERTIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- COLONIAL SALES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- W.E. INGRAM DIST., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MCPHERSON BROS. AUTO SUPPLY, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SOUTHGATE KORETIZING DSCA ID 70-0001Brownfields · 1100 ft
- CITY OF ELIZABETH CITY-GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KENYON BAILEY ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PK-208 E.C. BUS GARAGENitrate · 1500 ft
- SAUNDERS EXXON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PEPSI-COLA BOTTLING CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elizabeth City'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 Elizabeth City.
Total Sites
330
within ~10 miles of Elizabeth City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elizabeth City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elizabeth City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elizabeth City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elizabeth City — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (214 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Elizabeth City
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 Elizabeth City average
Your land is one point inside Elizabeth City
Everything above resolves to Elizabeth City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pasquotank County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Elizabeth City Average
Elizabeth City Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Elizabeth City
- ●One soil character for all of Elizabeth City
- ●Frost dates read at Elizabeth City's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elizabeth City's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elizabeth City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elizabeth City, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elizabeth City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elizabeth City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elizabeth City average
How we know this about Elizabeth City
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Pasquotank 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Elizabeth City
When does frost risk typically end in Elizabeth City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elizabeth City typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Elizabeth City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elizabeth City typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elizabeth City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elizabeth City sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 16, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elizabeth City?
The federal record around Elizabeth City is a meaningful one — 330 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (214), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Elizabeth City?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elizabeth City's scale — its 8a band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elizabeth City'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 Elizabeth City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elizabeth City's own scale — the 7,548 acres it covers and 330 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elizabeth City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 330 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elizabeth City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elizabeth City's boundary and the 7,548 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elizabeth City's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Elizabeth Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Elizabeth City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pasquotank County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elizabeth City's 7,548 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pasquotank County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pasquotank 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 Pasquotank County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elizabeth City's 7,548 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elizabeth City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,548 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 Elizabeth City-wide figureread your own land →
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