Gibson, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gibson, 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 Gibson 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 Gibson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gibson — the short answer
Gibson, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 625 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Scotland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Scotland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- Scotland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 625 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 Scotland County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Gibson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gibson's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gibson
Each reading below is measured for Gibson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGibson runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from Scotland County, the closest normal to Gibson) — 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
MeasuredGibson 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 Gibson is in
Gibson sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gibson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scotland County.
What Grows in Gibson
Every plant below cleared Gibson's own zone 8a and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gibson?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 22 — 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 Gibson
Survey cells within 31 miles of Gibson checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 85 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gibson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gibson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DAVIDS BODY REPAIRBrownfields · 100 ft
- TOWN OF GIBSON - TOWN HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- MUMFORD'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SCOTTLANDS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SHORT TRIP #10Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- J.N. GIBSON FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- STUBBS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GRADYS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SC-031 GIBSON MUNNitrate · 1.1 mi
- PATE FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- FARM AND COUNTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- SPRINGFIELD PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gibson'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 Gibson.
Total Sites
252
within ~10 miles of Gibson
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gibson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gibson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gibson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gibson — Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (180 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Gibson
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 Gibson average
Your land is one point inside Gibson
Everything above resolves to Gibson as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 625 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Scotland County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Gibson Average
Gibson Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Gibson
- ●One soil character for all of Gibson
- ●Frost dates read at Gibson's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gibson's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gibson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gibson, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gibson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gibson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gibson average
How we know this about Gibson
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 Scotland 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 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 Gibson
When does frost risk typically end in Gibson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gibson 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 Gibson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gibson typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gibson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gibson sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 8, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gibson?
The federal record around Gibson is a meaningful one — 252 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (180), the nearest Brownfields 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 Gibson?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gibson's scale — its 8a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gibson'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 Gibson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gibson's own scale — the 625 acres it covers and 252 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gibson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 252 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gibson, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gibson's boundary and the 625 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gibson's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Gibson checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gibson has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Scotland County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gibson's 625 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scotland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scotland 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 Scotland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gibson's 625 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gibson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 625 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Gibson-wide figureread your own land →