Enfield, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Enfield, 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 Enfield 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 Enfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Enfield — the short answer
Enfield, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 833 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 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 833 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 Enfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Enfield's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Enfield
Each reading below is measured for Enfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEnfield runs about 249 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
MeasuredEnfield 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 Enfield is in
Enfield sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Enfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Halifax County.
What Grows in Enfield
Every plant below cleared Enfield's own zone 8a and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Enfield?
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 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 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Enfield
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Enfield, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Enfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Enfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAROLINA PEANUT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- HELENA CHEMICAL CO.Brownfields · 200 ft
- PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- MEYER'S PARTNERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- HALIFAX ELECTRIC MEMBERSHIP CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ENFIELD TRACTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- POLICE DEPARTMENT & RESCUE SQUADUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CONSOLIDATED MOTORS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ENFIELD EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- M & C STORE & GRILL 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- HA-083A ENFIELD MUNNitrate · 1100 ft
- A-TEAM EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Enfield'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 Enfield.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Enfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Enfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Enfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Enfield, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 80 sites within ~10 miles of Enfield. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Enfield
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 Enfield average
Your land is one point inside Enfield
Everything above resolves to Enfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 833 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 Enfield Average
Enfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Enfield
- ●One soil character for all of Enfield
- ●Frost dates read at Enfield's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Enfield's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Enfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Enfield, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Enfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Enfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Enfield average
How we know this about Enfield
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 Enfield’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 Enfield
When does frost risk typically end in Enfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Enfield 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 Enfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Enfield typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Enfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Enfield sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 8, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Enfield?
The federal record around Enfield is a meaningful one — 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), 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 Enfield?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Enfield's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Enfield'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 Enfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Enfield's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 833 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Enfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Enfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 22 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Enfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Enfield's boundary and the 833 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Enfield's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Enfieldlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Enfield's 833 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Halifax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Halifax 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 Halifax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Enfield's 833 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Enfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 833 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 Enfield-wide figureread your own land →