Gulf, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Gulf, 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 Gulf 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 Gulf — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gulf — the short answer
Gulf, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 581 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- 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 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 581 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 Gulf's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gulf's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gulf
Each reading below is measured for Gulf itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGulf runs about 237 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
MeasuredGulf 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 Gulf is in
Gulf sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gulf's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chatham County.
What Grows in Gulf
Every plant below cleared Gulf's own zone 7b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gulf?
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 12 — 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 Gulf
Survey cells within 31 miles of Gulf checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 44 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gulf
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gulf. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GULF PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MURCHINSON'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CHEROKEE SANFORD GROUP INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- CH-243 NR SANFORD, NC TRIASSIC BASINNitrate · 1.4 mi
- LE-116 NR SANFORD, NC TRIASSIC BASINNitrate · 2.0 mi
- JAXUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- CH-247 NR SANFORD, NC TRIASSIC BASINNitrate · 2.4 mi
- PILGRIMSBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- GOLDEN POULTRY TRUCK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- THE IVY ARBORUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- PILGRIM'S PRIDE - SANFORD PROCESSING PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.9 mi
- LE-289 NR SANFORD, NC TRIASSIC BASINNitrate · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gulf'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 Gulf.
Total Sites
360
within ~10 miles of Gulf
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gulf
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gulf
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gulf, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 33 sites within ~10 miles of Gulf. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Gulf
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 Gulf average
Your land is one point inside Gulf
Everything above resolves to Gulf as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 581 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 Gulf Average
Gulf Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Gulf
- ●One soil character for all of Gulf
- ●Frost dates read at Gulf's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gulf's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gulf
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gulf, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gulf averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gulf — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gulf average
How we know this about Gulf
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 Gulf’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 Gulf
When does frost risk typically end in Gulf?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gulf 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 Gulf?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gulf typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gulf?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gulf sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 29, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gulf?
The federal record around Gulf is a meaningful one — 360 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (179), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Gulf?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gulf's scale — its 7b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gulf'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 Gulf’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gulf's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 581 acres it covers and 360 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gulf's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gulf's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 12 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 360 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gulf, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gulf's boundary and the 581 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gulf's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Gulf 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 Gulf's 581 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chatham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chatham 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 Chatham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gulf's 581 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gulf you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 581 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Gulf-wide figureread your own land →
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