Hightsville, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Hightsville, 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 Hightsville 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 Hightsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hightsville — the short answer
Hightsville, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 280 days between hard freezes, across 933 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- New Hanover County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- New Hanover County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~280
- New Hanover County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 933 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 New Hanover County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Hightsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hightsville's 280-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hightsville
Each reading below is measured for Hightsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHightsville runs about 280 days between hard freezes (read from New Hanover County, the closest normal to Hightsville) — 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
MeasuredHightsville sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Hightsville is in
Hightsville sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hightsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from New Hanover County.
What Grows in Hightsville
Every plant below cleared Hightsville's own zone 8b and its 280-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hightsville?
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 Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Hightsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Hightsville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hightsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hightsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WASTE INDUSTRIES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CASTLE HAYNE EZ MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- COUNTY FARM SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- W. K. HOBBS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NH-1008 NR WILMINGTON, NC CASTLE HAYNENitrate · 0.6 mi
- NC DOT - WILMINGTON (DIV THREE)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- E W GODWINS SONS - DOWNTOWN NORTHToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- E W GODWINS SONS - DOWNTOWN NORTHBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- GODWIN OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LANE'S MIDWAY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COOK MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hightsville'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 Hightsville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hightsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hightsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hightsville, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 21 sites within ~10 miles of Hightsville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Hightsville
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 Hightsville average
Your land is one point inside Hightsville
Everything above resolves to Hightsville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 933 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from New Hanover 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 Hightsville Average
Hightsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Hightsville
- ●One soil character for all of Hightsville
- ●Frost dates read at Hightsville's scale: Feb 28 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hightsville's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hightsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hightsville, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hightsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hightsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hightsville average
How we know this about Hightsville
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 New Hanover 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 Hightsville
When does frost risk typically end in Hightsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hightsville typically lands around Feb 28, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Hightsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hightsville typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 280 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hightsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hightsville sees about 280 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 21, about 245 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hightsville?
The federal record around Hightsville runs heavier than most — 1,060 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (544), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hightsville?
From about Nov 5 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 Dec 5 (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 Dec 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hightsville's scale — its 8b band and its 280-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hightsville'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 Hightsville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hightsville's own scale — the 933 acres it covers and 1,060 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hightsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,060 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hightsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hightsville's boundary and the 933 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~280-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hightsville's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hightsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hightsville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom New Hanover County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hightsville's 933 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom New Hanover County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom New Hanover 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 New Hanover County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hightsville's 933 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hightsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 933 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Hightsville-wide figureread your own land →