Hertford, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, fig, 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 Hertford, 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 Hertford 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 Hertford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hertford — the short answer
Hertford, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Perquimans County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Perquimans County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- Perquimans County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Perquimans County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Hertford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hertford's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hertford
Each reading below is measured for Hertford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHertford runs about 265 days between hard freezes (read from Perquimans County, the closest normal to Hertford) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHertford 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 Hertford is in
Hertford sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hertford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Perquimans County.
What Grows in Hertford
Every plant below cleared Hertford's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hertford?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Hertford
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hertford 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 Hertford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hertford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPEEDWAY #8245Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SEA JAYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- STRICK'S RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PARK N SHOP 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PR-018 Y L BROWNNitrate · 1800 ft
- COUNTRY CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PR-033 F LONGNitrate · 2000 ft
- TOWE BROS/SEA JAYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- JIMMY'S BARBECUE NO IUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- NC DEPT OF TRANS HERTFORD SHOP 4401Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- HERTFORD CAR CAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PERQUIMANS COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hertford'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 Hertford.
Total Sites
141
within ~10 miles of Hertford
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hertford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hertford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hertford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hertford — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (64 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hertford
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 Hertford average
Your land is one point inside Hertford
Everything above resolves to Hertford as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Perquimans County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Hertford Average
Hertford Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hertford
- ●One soil character for all of Hertford
- ●Frost dates read at Hertford's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hertford's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hertford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hertford, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hertford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hertford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hertford average
How we know this about Hertford
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 Perquimans County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Hertford
When does frost risk typically end in Hertford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hertford typically lands around Mar 9, 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 Mar 30.
When is the first frost in Hertford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hertford typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hertford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hertford sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 15, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hertford?
The federal record around Hertford is a meaningful one — 141 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (64), 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 Hertford?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hertford's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hertford'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 Hertford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hertford's own scale — the 1,831 acres it covers and 141 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hertford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 141 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hertford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hertford's boundary and the 1,831 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hertford's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hertford checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hertford has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Perquimans County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hertford's 1,831 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perquimans County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perquimans 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 Perquimans County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hertford's 1,831 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hertford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,831 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 Hertford-wide figureread your own land →