Gamewell, 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.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gamewell, 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 Gamewell 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 Gamewell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gamewell — the short answer
Gamewell, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Gamewell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gamewell's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gamewell
Each reading below is measured for Gamewell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGamewell runs about 235 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
MeasuredGamewell 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 Gamewell is in
Gamewell sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gamewell's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Caldwell County is mostly Blue Ridge. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gamewell
Every plant below cleared Gamewell's own zone 7b and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gamewell?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Gamewell
Survey cells within 31 miles of Gamewell checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 50 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gamewell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gamewell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KINCAID FURNATURE CO PLANT 8Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- KINCAID FURNITURE CO - PLANT 8Brownfields · 750 ft
- KINCAID FURNITURE CO - PLANT 8Toxics Release Inventory · 750 ft
- MCCREARY MODERN, INC. - UPHOLSTERY PLANTBrownfields · 1200 ft
- GAMEWELL SUPERETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HERMAN'S TIRE & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KINCAID FURNITURE CO.-PLANT 8Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CROSSROADS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PLANT NO. 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PLANT NO. 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BERNHARDT FURN CO PLANT 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- EMPLOYEE CREDIT UNIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gamewell'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 Gamewell.
Total Sites
601
within ~10 miles of Gamewell
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gamewell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gamewell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gamewell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gamewell — Superfund (13 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (59 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Gamewell
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 Gamewell average
Your land is one point inside Gamewell
Everything above resolves to Gamewell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Gamewell Average
Gamewell Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Gamewell
- ●One soil character for all of Gamewell
- ●Frost dates read at Gamewell's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gamewell's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gamewell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gamewell, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gamewell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gamewell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gamewell average
How we know this about Gamewell
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 Gamewell’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 Gamewell
When does frost risk typically end in Gamewell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gamewell typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Gamewell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gamewell typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gamewell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gamewell sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 28, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gamewell?
The federal record around Gamewell is a meaningful one — 601 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (377), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Gamewell?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gamewell's scale — its 7b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gamewell'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 Gamewell’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gamewell's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,188 acres it covers and 601 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gamewell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gamewell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 11 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 601 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gamewell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gamewell's boundary and the 5,188 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gamewell sits in the Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Gamewell 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 Gamewell's 5,188 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Caldwell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Caldwell 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 Caldwell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gamewell's 5,188 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gamewell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,188 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Gamewell-wide figureread your own land →