Hassell, 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.
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 Hassell, 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 Hassell 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 Hassell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hassell — the short answer
Hassell, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 170 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 170 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 Hassell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hassell's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hassell
Each reading below is measured for Hassell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHassell runs about 259 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
MeasuredHassell 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 Hassell is in
Hassell sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hassell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Martin County.
What Grows in Hassell
Every plant below cleared Hassell's own zone 8a and its 259-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hassell?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Hassell
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hassell checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 48 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hassell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hassell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARRELL'S GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- WILLIE COUNCIL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- HASSELL MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- WBTC FOR ELLEN EUBANKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- W S CLARK AND SONS INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- SPEEDWAY #6964Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- LEE'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- D. G. MATTHEWS & SON, INC.RAINBOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- PENCO PRODUCTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 3.3 mi
- TURNERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- H.L. HOPKINS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- SCOTT'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hassell'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 Hassell.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Hassell
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hassell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hassell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hassell, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 74 sites within ~10 miles of Hassell. 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 Hassell
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 Hassell average
Your land is one point inside Hassell
Everything above resolves to Hassell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 170 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 Hassell Average
Hassell Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hassell
- ●One soil character for all of Hassell
- ●Frost dates read at Hassell's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hassell's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hassell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hassell, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hassell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hassell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hassell average
How we know this about Hassell
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 Hassell’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 Hassell
When does frost risk typically end in Hassell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hassell typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Hassell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hassell typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 259 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hassell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hassell sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 12, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hassell?
The federal record around Hassell is a meaningful one — 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (74), 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 Hassell?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hassell's scale — its 8a band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hassell'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 Hassell’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hassell's own scale — its own ~259-day season between 28°F freezes, the 170 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hassell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hassell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 26 and the ~259-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hassell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hassell's boundary and the 170 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hassell's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hassell 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 Hassell's 170 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Martin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Martin 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 Martin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hassell's 170 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hassell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 170 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 Hassell-wide figureread your own land →
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