Four Oaks, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Four Oaks, 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 Four Oaks 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 Four Oaks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Four Oaks — the short answer
Four Oaks, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Four Oaks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Four Oaks's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Four Oaks
Each reading below is measured for Four Oaks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFour Oaks runs about 254 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
MeasuredFour Oaks 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 Four Oaks is in
Four Oaks sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Four Oaks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Johnston County.
What Grows in Four Oaks
Every plant below cleared Four Oaks's own zone 8a and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Four Oaks?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Four Oaks
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Four Oaks, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Four Oaks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Four Oaks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL #7144Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SPEEDWAY #8682Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JH-096Nitrate · 2000 ft
- VIRTEY VERLON ALLENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- KWIK PICK, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ROY DUNNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MCLAMBS AMOCO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AMERICAN DISC BUILDERS PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MILLER'S GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NORRIS GAS & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ALSTON R BAREFOOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BENTONVILLE BATTLEGROUND HSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Four Oaks'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 Four Oaks.
Total Sites
386
within ~10 miles of Four Oaks
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Four Oaks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Four Oaks
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 Four Oaks
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 Four Oaks average
Your land is one point inside Four Oaks
Everything above resolves to Four Oaks as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Four Oaks Average
Four Oaks Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Four Oaks
- ●One soil character for all of Four Oaks
- ●Frost dates read at Four Oaks's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Four Oaks's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Four Oaks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Four Oaks, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Four Oaks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Four Oaks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Four Oaks average
How we know this about Four Oaks
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 Four Oaks’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 Four Oaks
When does frost risk typically end in Four Oaks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Four Oaks typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Four Oaks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Four Oaks typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Four Oaks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Four Oaks sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 6, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Four Oaks?
The federal record around Four Oaks is a meaningful one — 386 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (237), 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 Four Oaks?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Four Oaks's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Four Oaks'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 Four Oaks’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Four Oaks's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,798 acres it covers and 386 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Four Oaks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Four Oaks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 20 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 386 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Four Oaks, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Four Oaks's boundary and the 1,798 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Four Oaks's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Four Oakslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Four Oaks's 1,798 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Johnston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Johnston 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 Johnston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Four Oaks's 1,798 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Four Oaks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,798 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 Four Oaks-wide figureread your own land →