Elizabethtown, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Elizabethtown, 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 Elizabethtown 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 Elizabethtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elizabethtown — the short answer
Elizabethtown, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- Bladen 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 Bladen County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Elizabethtown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elizabethtown's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elizabethtown
Each reading below is measured for Elizabethtown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsElizabethtown runs about 263 days between hard freezes (read from Bladen County, the closest normal to Elizabethtown) — 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
MeasuredElizabethtown 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 Elizabethtown is in
Elizabethtown sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elizabethtown's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bladen County is mostly Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Elizabethtown
Every plant below cleared Elizabethtown's own zone 8b and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elizabethtown?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Elizabethtown
Survey cells within 31 miles of Elizabethtown checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Elizabethtown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elizabethtown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAN-DEE HUGO'S 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WALGREENS #15273Brownfields · 1000 ft
- POTTER MOTOR CO INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- MINUTE MAN 17Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TIGER MART 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #5508Brownfields · 1300 ft
- PAUL H SESSOMS & COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MARVIN WILSON UNION 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NC HWY PATROLBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BL-121 IN ELIZABETHTOWN, NCNitrate · 2000 ft
- ELIZABETHTOWN JR. HIGHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ELIZABETHTOWN EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elizabethtown'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 Elizabethtown.
Total Sites
143
within ~10 miles of Elizabethtown
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elizabethtown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elizabethtown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elizabethtown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elizabethtown — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (91 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 Elizabethtown
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 Elizabethtown average
Your land is one point inside Elizabethtown
Everything above resolves to Elizabethtown as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bladen 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 Elizabethtown Average
Elizabethtown Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Elizabethtown
- ●One soil character for all of Elizabethtown
- ●Frost dates read at Elizabethtown's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elizabethtown's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elizabethtown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elizabethtown, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elizabethtown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elizabethtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elizabethtown average
How we know this about Elizabethtown
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 Bladen 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 Elizabethtown
When does frost risk typically end in Elizabethtown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elizabethtown typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Elizabethtown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elizabethtown typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elizabethtown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elizabethtown sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 13, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elizabethtown?
The federal record around Elizabethtown shows 143 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Elizabethtown?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elizabethtown's scale — its 8b band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elizabethtown'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 Elizabethtown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elizabethtown's own scale — the 3,409 acres it covers and 143 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elizabethtown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 143 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elizabethtown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elizabethtown's boundary and the 3,409 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Elizabethtown sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Elizabethtown checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Elizabethtown has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bladen County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elizabethtown's 3,409 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bladen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bladen 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 Bladen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elizabethtown's 3,409 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elizabethtown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,409 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 Elizabethtown-wide figureread your own land →