Halifax, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Halifax, 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 Halifax 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 Halifax — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Halifax — the short answer
Halifax, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 292 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 292 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 Halifax's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Halifax's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Halifax
Each reading below is measured for Halifax itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHalifax 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
MeasuredHalifax 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 Halifax is in
Halifax sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Halifax's own centroid rather than borrowed from Halifax County.
What Grows in Halifax
Every plant below cleared Halifax'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 Halifax?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 18 — 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 Halifax
Spotted lanternfly documented 18 miles from Halifax, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Halifax
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Halifax. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KING ST OFFICE BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ANDREW JACKSON ELEM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- HA-059 HALIFAX MUNNitrate · 650 ft
- HALIFAX COUNTY SCHOOLSBrownfields · 950 ft
- HALIFAX AUTO BODY COBrownfields · 950 ft
- HALIFAX TEXACO (CLOSED)Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HALIFAX COUNTY FUEL SITE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HALIFAX SUPER SAVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- HISTORIC HALIFAX STATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HA-061 HALIFAX MUNNitrate · 1800 ft
- MCI COMMUNICATIONS (HALINC)Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HISTORIC HALIFAX ST HISTORIC SITUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Halifax'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 Halifax.
Total Sites
259
within ~10 miles of Halifax
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Halifax
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Halifax
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Halifax, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 198 sites within ~10 miles of Halifax. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Halifax
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 Halifax average
Your land is one point inside Halifax
Everything above resolves to Halifax as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 292 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 Halifax Average
Halifax Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Halifax
- ●One soil character for all of Halifax
- ●Frost dates read at Halifax's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Halifax's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Halifax
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Halifax, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Halifax averages can't show:
We read public map data around Halifax — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Halifax average
How we know this about Halifax
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 Halifax’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 Halifax
When does frost risk typically end in Halifax?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Halifax 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 Halifax?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Halifax 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 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Halifax?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Halifax sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 4, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Halifax?
The federal record around Halifax is a meaningful one — 259 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (198), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Halifax?
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 Halifax's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Halifax'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 Halifax’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Halifax's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 292 acres it covers and 259 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Halifax's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Halifax's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 18 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 259 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Halifax, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Halifax's boundary and the 292 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 Halifax's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Halifaxlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Halifax's 292 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Halifax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Halifax 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 Halifax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Halifax's 292 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Halifax you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 292 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Halifax-wide figureread your own land →