Garysburg, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Garysburg, 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 Garysburg 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 Garysburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Garysburg — the short answer
Garysburg, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 604 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 604 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 Garysburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garysburg's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garysburg
Each reading below is measured for Garysburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGarysburg runs about 243 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
MeasuredGarysburg 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 Garysburg is in
Garysburg sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Garysburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Northampton County.
What Grows in Garysburg
Every plant below cleared Garysburg's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Garysburg?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Garysburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Garysburg, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Garysburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garysburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VASSOR'S GARYSBURG MINI-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MAJETTE'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- RAMSEY'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MOODY'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LEE'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TGPL GARYSBURG CREWUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TURNER AUTO SALES & GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DEBRO'S TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BENNETT'S GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KLOC KIRBY LOFTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SUITER'S STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LAWRENCE TURNER'S GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garysburg'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 Garysburg.
Total Sites
367
within ~10 miles of Garysburg
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Garysburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garysburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Garysburg, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 285 sites within ~10 miles of Garysburg. 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.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Garysburg
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 Garysburg average
Your land is one point inside Garysburg
Everything above resolves to Garysburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 604 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 Garysburg Average
Garysburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Garysburg
- ●One soil character for all of Garysburg
- ●Frost dates read at Garysburg's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garysburg's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garysburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garysburg, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garysburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garysburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garysburg average
How we know this about Garysburg
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 Garysburg’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 Garysburg
When does frost risk typically end in Garysburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garysburg typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Garysburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garysburg typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Garysburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garysburg sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 4, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garysburg?
The federal record around Garysburg is a meaningful one — 367 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (285), 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 Garysburg?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Garysburg's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garysburg'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 Garysburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Garysburg's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 604 acres it covers and 367 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garysburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Garysburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 18 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 367 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garysburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garysburg's boundary and the 604 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Garysburg's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Garysburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Garysburg's 604 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Northampton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Northampton 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 Northampton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Garysburg's 604 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garysburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 604 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 Garysburg-wide figureread your own land →