Engelhard, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Engelhard, 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 Engelhard 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 Engelhard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Engelhard — the short answer
Engelhard, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 293 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Hyde County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Hyde County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~293
- Hyde County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Hyde County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Engelhard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Engelhard's 293-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Engelhard
Each reading below is measured for Engelhard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEngelhard runs about 293 days between hard freezes (read from Hyde County, the closest normal to Engelhard) — 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
MeasuredEngelhard 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 Engelhard is in
Engelhard sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Engelhard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hyde County.
What Grows in Engelhard
Every plant below cleared Engelhard's own zone 8b and its 293-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Engelhard?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Engelhard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Engelhard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GIBBS ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ETHCO SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ENGELHARD EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ENGELHARD BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- W.H. COX STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- HY-172 SUPPLY 09BNitrate · 4.6 mi
- HY-173 LU-S9C NEAR FAIRFIELD, NCNitrate · 9.9 mi
Measured from Engelhard'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 Engelhard.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Engelhard
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Engelhard
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 Engelhard average
Your land is one point inside Engelhard
Everything above resolves to Engelhard as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hyde 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 Engelhard Average
Engelhard Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Engelhard
- ●One soil character for all of Engelhard
- ●Frost dates read at Engelhard's scale: Feb 23 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Engelhard's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Engelhard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Engelhard, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Engelhard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Engelhard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Engelhard average
How we know this about Engelhard
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 Hyde 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 Engelhard
When does frost risk typically end in Engelhard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Engelhard typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Engelhard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Engelhard typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 293 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Engelhard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Engelhard sees about 293 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 29, about 258 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Engelhard?
The federal record around Engelhard is light — 9 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (5), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Engelhard?
From about Nov 13 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 Dec 13 (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 Dec 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Engelhard's scale — its 8b band and its 293-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Engelhard'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 Engelhard’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Engelhard's own scale — the 2,067 acres it covers and 9 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Engelhard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 9 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Engelhard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Engelhard's boundary and the 2,067 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~293-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Engelhard's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Engelhard has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hyde County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Engelhard's 2,067 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hyde County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hyde 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 Hyde County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Engelhard's 2,067 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Engelhard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,067 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Engelhard-wide figureread your own land →