Hope Mills, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hope Mills, 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 Hope Mills 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 Hope Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hope Mills — the short answer
Hope Mills, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- Cumberland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Cumberland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- Cumberland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Cumberland County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Hope Mills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hope Mills's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hope Mills
Each reading below is measured for Hope Mills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHope Mills runs about 261 days between hard freezes (read from Cumberland County, the closest normal to Hope Mills) — 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
MeasuredHope Mills 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 Hope Mills is in
Hope Mills sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hope Mills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cumberland County.
What Grows in Hope Mills
Every plant below cleared Hope Mills's own zone 8b and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hope Mills?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Hope Mills
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hope Mills checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 65 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hope Mills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hope Mills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIRCLE K 2723005Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HOPE MILLS TIRE SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PARKER CLEANERS INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CIRCLE K 2720481Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MCI COMMUNICATIONS (HPMLNC)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TOWN OF HOPE MILLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- THE CAR CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LOWE'S OF HOPE MILLS, NC #2906Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- MURPHY USA #6540Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #7163Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #2929Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- CIRCLE K 2720376Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hope Mills'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 Hope Mills.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hope Mills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hope Mills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hope Mills, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 540 sites within ~10 miles of Hope Mills. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Hope Mills
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 Hope Mills average
Your land is one point inside Hope Mills
Everything above resolves to Hope Mills as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Cumberland 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 Hope Mills Average
Hope Mills Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Hope Mills
- ●One soil character for all of Hope Mills
- ●Frost dates read at Hope Mills's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hope Mills's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hope Mills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hope Mills, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hope Mills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hope Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hope Mills average
How we know this about Hope Mills
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 Cumberland 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 Hope Mills
When does frost risk typically end in Hope Mills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hope Mills typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Hope Mills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hope Mills 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 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hope Mills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hope Mills sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 12, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hope Mills?
The federal record around Hope Mills is a meaningful one — 773 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (540), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Hope Mills?
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 Hope Mills's scale — its 8b band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hope Mills'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 Hope Mills’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hope Mills's own scale — the 5,785 acres it covers and 773 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hope Mills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 773 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hope Mills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hope Mills's boundary and the 5,785 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hope Mills's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hope Mills checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hope Mills has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Cumberland County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hope Mills's 5,785 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cumberland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cumberland 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 Cumberland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hope Mills's 5,785 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hope Mills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,785 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Hope Mills-wide figureread your own land →
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