Glen Raven, 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.
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 Glen Raven, 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 Raven 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 Raven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Glen Raven — the short answer
Glen Raven, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- 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 Glen Raven's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glen Raven's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glen Raven
Each reading below is measured for Glen Raven itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGlen Raven runs about 242 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 Raven 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 Glen Raven is in
Glen Raven sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Glen Raven's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alamance County.
What Grows in Glen Raven
Every plant below cleared Glen Raven's own zone 8a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glen Raven?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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 Glen Raven
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Glen Raven, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Glen Raven
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glen Raven. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUFFINES SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- EAGLE FOOD MART 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ARROWHEAD AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PIEDMONT METALS OF BURLINGTON, INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- CAROLINA CHEMICAL STRIP OF ALAMANCE INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- HE WILSON INDUSTRIES INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PIEDMONT METALS OF BURLINGTONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- AAA SIGNS OF BURLINGTON INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- BURLINGTON LEASING & RENT-A-CARUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- EXPRESS STOP 21Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GLEN RAVEN INC-ALAMANCEToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- NATIONAL SPINNING CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glen Raven'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 Raven.
Total Sites
699
within ~10 miles of Glen Raven
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glen Raven
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glen Raven
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Glen Raven, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Glen Raven — Toxics Release Inventory (48 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (473 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Glen Raven
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 Raven average
Your land is one point inside Glen Raven
Everything above resolves to Glen Raven 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 Glen Raven Average
Glen Raven Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Glen Raven
- ●One soil character for all of Glen Raven
- ●Frost dates read at Glen Raven's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glen Raven's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glen Raven
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glen Raven, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glen Raven averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glen Raven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glen Raven average
How we know this about Glen Raven
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 Raven’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 Raven
When does frost risk typically end in Glen Raven?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glen Raven typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Glen Raven?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glen Raven typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glen Raven?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glen Raven sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 1, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glen Raven?
The federal record around Glen Raven is a meaningful one — 699 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (473), 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 Glen Raven?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Glen Raven's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glen Raven'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 Raven’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Glen Raven's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,116 acres it covers and 699 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glen Raven's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Glen Raven's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 15 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 699 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glen Raven, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glen Raven's boundary and the 2,116 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Glen Raven's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Glen Ravenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Glen Raven's 2,116 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alamance County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alamance 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 Alamance County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glen Raven's 2,116 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glen Raven you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,116 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 Glen Raven-wide figureread your own land →
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