Ingold, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Ingold, 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 Ingold 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 Ingold — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ingold — the short answer
Ingold, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Sampson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Sampson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- Sampson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Sampson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Ingold's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ingold's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ingold
Each reading below is measured for Ingold itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsIngold runs about 260 days between hard freezes (read from Sampson County, the closest normal to Ingold) — 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
MeasuredIngold 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 Ingold is in
Ingold sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ingold's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sampson County.
What Grows in Ingold
Every plant below cleared Ingold's own zone 8b and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ingold?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (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 Ingold
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ingold checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ingold
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ingold. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUDDY'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MAOLA MILK AND ICE CREAM CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SA-066Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- SA-065Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- TOWN OF GARLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- J.J. STAFFORD & SONS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- GARLAND SHIRT FACTORYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- GARLAND FARM SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- SIX RUN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- HANDEE HUGO 37Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- MURPHYS AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- SA-073Nitrate · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ingold'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 Ingold.
Total Sites
48
within ~10 miles of Ingold
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ingold
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ingold
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ingold, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Ingold. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ingold
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 Ingold average
Your land is one point inside Ingold
Everything above resolves to Ingold as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sampson 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 Ingold Average
Ingold Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Ingold
- ●One soil character for all of Ingold
- ●Frost dates read at Ingold's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ingold's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ingold
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ingold, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ingold averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ingold — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ingold average
How we know this about Ingold
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 Sampson 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 Ingold
When does frost risk typically end in Ingold?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ingold typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Ingold?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ingold 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 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ingold?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ingold sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 12, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ingold?
The federal record around Ingold is a meaningful one — 48 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), 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 Ingold?
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 Ingold's scale — its 8b band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ingold'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 Ingold’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ingold's own scale — the 3,316 acres it covers and 48 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ingold's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 48 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ingold, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ingold's boundary and the 3,316 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ingold's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ingold checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ingold has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sampson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ingold's 3,316 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sampson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sampson 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 Sampson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ingold's 3,316 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ingold you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,316 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 Ingold-wide figureread your own land →