Faison, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Faison, 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 Faison 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 Faison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Faison — the short answer
Faison, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 554 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 554 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 Faison's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Faison's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Faison
Each reading below is measured for Faison itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFaison runs about 258 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
MeasuredFaison 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 Faison is in
Faison sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Faison's own centroid rather than borrowed from Duplin County.
What Grows in Faison
Every plant below cleared Faison's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Faison?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Faison
Survey cells within 31 miles of Faison checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 57 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Faison
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Faison. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAISON FAST FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- ROBBIE'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- FRIENDLY MART 1Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- FILEDS UPHOLSTERY CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- AMRA QUICK TRIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CHARLES F CATES & SONS INCToxics Release Inventory · 700 ft
- DEAN PICKLE AND SPECIALTY PRODUCTS COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- DU-009Nitrate · 1800 ft
- DU-010Nitrate · 1800 ft
- HANDY MART 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SUTTON TOWN RESCUE SQUADUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- SUTTON SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Faison'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 Faison.
Total Sites
171
within ~10 miles of Faison
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Faison
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Faison
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.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Faison
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 Faison average
Your land is one point inside Faison
Everything above resolves to Faison as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 554 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 Faison Average
Faison Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Faison
- ●One soil character for all of Faison
- ●Frost dates read at Faison's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Faison's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Faison
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Faison, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Faison averages can't show:
We read public map data around Faison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Faison average
How we know this about Faison
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 Faison’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 Faison
When does frost risk typically end in Faison?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Faison typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Faison?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Faison typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Faison?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Faison sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 11, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Faison?
The federal record around Faison is a meaningful one — 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (102), 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 Faison?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Faison's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Faison'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 Faison’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Faison's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 554 acres it covers and 171 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Faison's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Faison's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 25 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 171 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Faison, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Faison's boundary and the 554 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Faison's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Faison 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 Faison's 554 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Duplin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Duplin 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 Duplin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Faison's 554 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Faison you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 554 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 Faison-wide figureread your own land →