Fontana Dam, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Fontana Dam, 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 Fontana Dam 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 Fontana Dam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fontana Dam — the short answer
Fontana Dam, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 399 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 399 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 7b is Fontana Dam's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fontana Dam's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fontana Dam
Each reading below is measured for Fontana Dam itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFontana Dam runs about 202 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
MeasuredFontana Dam sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Fontana Dam is in
Fontana Dam sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fontana Dam's own centroid rather than borrowed from Graham County.
What Grows in Fontana Dam
Every plant below cleared Fontana Dam's own zone 7b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fontana Dam?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Fontana Dam
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fontana Dam checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 52 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fontana Dam
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fontana Dam. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY FONTANA HYDRO DAMSuperfund · 1.7 mi
- TVA FONTANA HYDRO PLANTBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- JOHNSONS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- SANTEETLAH POWERHOUSEBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- Fontana MineMining · 4.4 mi
- Fontana Copper MineMining · 4.4 mi
- GM-023 NR SANTEETLAH, NC QUARTZITENitrate · 4.8 mi
- Kitchen ProspectMining · 5.1 mi
- TERRY'S PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- PERKINS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- CHEOAH HYDROELECTRIC PROJECTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fontana Dam'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 Fontana Dam.
Total Sites
64
within ~10 miles of Fontana Dam
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fontana Dam
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fontana Dam
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fontana Dam, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fontana Dam — Mining (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (44 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Fontana Dam
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 Fontana Dam average
Your land is one point inside Fontana Dam
Everything above resolves to Fontana Dam as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 399 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 Fontana Dam Average
Fontana Dam Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Fontana Dam
- ●One soil character for all of Fontana Dam
- ●Frost dates read at Fontana Dam's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fontana Dam's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fontana Dam
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fontana Dam, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fontana Dam averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fontana Dam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fontana Dam average
How we know this about Fontana Dam
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 Fontana Dam’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 Fontana Dam
When does frost risk typically end in Fontana Dam?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fontana Dam typically lands around Apr 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 May 1.
When is the first frost in Fontana Dam?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fontana Dam typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fontana Dam?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fontana Dam sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 15, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fontana Dam?
The federal record around Fontana Dam is a meaningful one — 64 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), 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 Fontana Dam?
From about Sep 29 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 Oct 29 (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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fontana Dam's scale — its 7b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fontana Dam'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 Fontana Dam’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fontana Dam's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 399 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fontana Dam's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fontana Dam's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 29 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fontana Dam, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fontana Dam's boundary and the 399 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fontana Dam's own centroid, the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fontana Dam 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 Fontana Dam's 399 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Graham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Graham 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 Graham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fontana Dam's 399 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fontana Dam you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 399 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 Fontana Dam-wide figureread your own land →