Glen Alpine, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Glen Alpine, 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 Glen Alpine 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 Glen Alpine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Glen Alpine — the short answer
Glen Alpine, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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
- 1K 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 Glen Alpine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glen Alpine's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glen Alpine
Each reading below is measured for Glen Alpine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGlen Alpine 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
MeasuredGlen Alpine 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 Glen Alpine is in
Glen Alpine sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Glen Alpine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Burke County.
What Grows in Glen Alpine
Every plant below cleared Glen Alpine'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 Glen Alpine?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Glen Alpine
Survey cells within 31 miles of Glen Alpine checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 46 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Glen Alpine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glen Alpine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRED CALLAHAN CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LAIL ROAD GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BARRETT'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LAKE JAMES 3-WAY SUPPLY 10150Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MONDAY'S MARKET 10170Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BURKE LUMBER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SOUTHERN BELL-GLC 22902Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- THRIFTY MART NO. 10248Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HENNESSEE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PINE LOGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BIG DADDY'S #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ASPHALT PAVING COMPANY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glen Alpine'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 Glen Alpine.
Total Sites
347
within ~10 miles of Glen Alpine
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glen Alpine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glen Alpine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Glen Alpine, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Glen Alpine — Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Glen Alpine
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 Glen Alpine average
Your land is one point inside Glen Alpine
Everything above resolves to Glen Alpine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Glen Alpine Average
Glen Alpine Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Glen Alpine
- ●One soil character for all of Glen Alpine
- ●Frost dates read at Glen Alpine's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glen Alpine's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glen Alpine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glen Alpine, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glen Alpine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glen Alpine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glen Alpine average
How we know this about Glen Alpine
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 Glen Alpine’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 Glen Alpine
When does frost risk typically end in Glen Alpine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glen Alpine 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 Glen Alpine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glen Alpine 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 Glen Alpine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glen Alpine 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 Glen Alpine?
The federal record around Glen Alpine is a meaningful one — 347 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (233), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Glen Alpine?
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 Glen Alpine's scale — its 7b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glen Alpine'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 Glen Alpine’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Glen Alpine's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,374 acres it covers and 347 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glen Alpine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Glen Alpine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 11 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 347 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glen Alpine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glen Alpine's boundary and the 1,374 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Glen Alpine's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Glen Alpine 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 Glen Alpine's 1,374 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Burke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Burke 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 Burke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glen Alpine's 1,374 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glen Alpine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,374 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Glen Alpine-wide figureread your own land →
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