Haw River, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Haw River, 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 Haw River 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 Haw River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Haw River — the short answer
Haw River, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- 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 Haw River's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Haw River's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Haw River
Each reading below is measured for Haw River itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHaw River runs about 239 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
MeasuredHaw River 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 Haw River is in
Haw River sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Haw River's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alamance County.
What Grows in Haw River
Every plant below cleared Haw River's own zone 8a and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Haw River?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Haw River
Survey cells within 31 miles of Haw River checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Haw River
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Haw River. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAIRWAY ONE STOP 10Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- HAW RIVER DAYTONAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- VERTEX SPORTSWEAR INCToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- CONE MILLS CORP TABARDREY PLTBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MEBANE SHRUBBERY MARKET, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HAW RIVER 66 SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CONE MILLS CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2500 ft
- CONE MILLS CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- HAW RIVER EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- L & W SAND & STONE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BIG AL'S PIZZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- J-LIN HOSIERY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Haw River'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 Haw River.
Total Sites
785
within ~10 miles of Haw River
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Haw River
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Haw River
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Haw River, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Haw River — Toxics Release Inventory (54 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (541 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 Haw River
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 Haw River average
Your land is one point inside Haw River
Everything above resolves to Haw River 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 Haw River Average
Haw River Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Haw River
- ●One soil character for all of Haw River
- ●Frost dates read at Haw River's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Haw River's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Haw River
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Haw River, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Haw River averages can't show:
We read public map data around Haw River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Haw River average
How we know this about Haw River
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 Haw River’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 Haw River
When does frost risk typically end in Haw River?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Haw River typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Haw River?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Haw River typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Haw River?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Haw River sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 30, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Haw River?
The federal record around Haw River is a meaningful one — 785 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (541), 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 Haw River?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Haw River's scale — its 8a band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Haw River'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 Haw River’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Haw River's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,982 acres it covers and 785 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Haw River's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Haw River's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 13 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 785 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Haw River, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Haw River's boundary and the 1,982 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Haw River's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Haw River 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 Haw River's 1,982 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 Haw River's 1,982 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Haw River you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,982 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 Haw River-wide figureread your own land →
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