Fayetteville, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fayetteville, 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 Fayetteville 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 Fayetteville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fayetteville — the short answer
Fayetteville, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 95K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- Cumberland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Cumberland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- Cumberland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 95K 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 Cumberland County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Fayetteville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fayetteville's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fayetteville
Each reading below is measured for Fayetteville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFayetteville runs about 261 days between hard freezes (read from Cumberland County, the closest normal to Fayetteville) — 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
MeasuredFayetteville 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 Fayetteville is in
Fayetteville sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fayetteville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cumberland County.
What Grows in Fayetteville
Every plant below cleared Fayetteville's own zone 8a and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fayetteville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Fayetteville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fayetteville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 58 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fayetteville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fayetteville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPEEDWAY #6994Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FORMERLY CORDER VOSSLER TIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PONDEROSA BP 385Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SAVING STATION- DODGE'S STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PONDEROSA BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NCDSCA DC260015 (GLAM-O-RAMA)Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- GLAM-O-RAMABrownfields · 0.8 mi
- FAYETTEVILLE CONSTRUCTION OFFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- QUICK STOP FOOD MART 14Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LAFAYETTE HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WALGREENS 19907Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- SEARS #1405/6413Brownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fayetteville'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 Fayetteville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fayetteville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fayetteville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fayetteville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fayetteville — Underground Storage Tanks (572 sites) and Superfund (11 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Fayetteville
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 Fayetteville average
Your land is one point inside Fayetteville
Everything above resolves to Fayetteville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 95K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Cumberland 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 Fayetteville Average
Fayetteville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Fayetteville
- ●One soil character for all of Fayetteville
- ●Frost dates read at Fayetteville's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fayetteville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fayetteville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fayetteville, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fayetteville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fayetteville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fayetteville average
How we know this about Fayetteville
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 Cumberland 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 Fayetteville
When does frost risk typically end in Fayetteville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fayetteville typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Fayetteville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fayetteville typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fayetteville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fayetteville sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 12, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fayetteville?
The federal record around Fayetteville is a meaningful one — 841 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (572), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Fayetteville?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fayetteville's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fayetteville'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 Fayetteville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fayetteville's own scale — the 94,890 acres it covers and 841 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fayetteville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 841 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fayetteville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fayetteville's boundary and the 94,890 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fayetteville's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fayetteville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fayetteville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Cumberland County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fayetteville's 94,890 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cumberland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cumberland 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 Cumberland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fayetteville's 94,890 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fayetteville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 94,890 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Fayetteville-wide figureread your own land →
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