Jackson Heights, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Jackson Heights, 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 Jackson Heights 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 Jackson Heights — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jackson Heights — the short answer
Jackson Heights, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 930 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- Lenoir County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Lenoir County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- Lenoir County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 930 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 Lenoir County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Jackson Heights's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jackson Heights's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jackson Heights
Each reading below is measured for Jackson Heights itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsJackson Heights runs about 255 days between hard freezes (read from Lenoir County, the closest normal to Jackson Heights) — 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
MeasuredJackson Heights 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 Jackson Heights is in
Jackson Heights sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jackson Heights's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lenoir County.
What Grows in Jackson Heights
Every plant below cleared Jackson Heights's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jackson Heights?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Jackson Heights
Survey cells within 31 miles of Jackson Heights checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 69 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Jackson Heights
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jackson Heights. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KINSTON, CITY OFPFAS · 1600 ft
- WALTER RAMSEY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- LIGHTHOUSE FOOD MART 110Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHEASTERN FREIGHT LINES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHEASTERN FREIGHT LINE-LENOBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- FRIENDLY MART 20Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HAROLD LEE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BRANCH TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PUBLIC SERVICE COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- JOE JONES TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- EUBANKS INS SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CITY OF KINSTON FLEET MAINTENANCE GARAGEBrownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jackson Heights'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 Jackson Heights.
Total Sites
416
within ~10 miles of Jackson Heights
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jackson Heights
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jackson Heights
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jackson Heights, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Jackson Heights — Superfund (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (287 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Jackson Heights
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 Jackson Heights average
Your land is one point inside Jackson Heights
Everything above resolves to Jackson Heights as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 930 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lenoir 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 Jackson Heights Average
Jackson Heights Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Jackson Heights
- ●One soil character for all of Jackson Heights
- ●Frost dates read at Jackson Heights's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jackson Heights's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jackson Heights
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jackson Heights, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jackson Heights averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jackson Heights — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jackson Heights average
How we know this about Jackson Heights
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 Lenoir 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 Jackson Heights
When does frost risk typically end in Jackson Heights?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jackson Heights typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Jackson Heights?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jackson Heights typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jackson Heights?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jackson Heights sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 11, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jackson Heights?
The federal record around Jackson Heights is a meaningful one — 416 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (287), the nearest PFAS 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 Jackson Heights?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jackson Heights's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jackson Heights'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 Jackson Heights’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Jackson Heights's own scale — the 930 acres it covers and 416 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jackson Heights's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 416 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jackson Heights, the closest PFAS record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jackson Heights's boundary and the 930 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jackson Heights's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Jackson Heights checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Jackson Heights has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lenoir County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jackson Heights's 930 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lenoir County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lenoir 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 Lenoir County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jackson Heights's 930 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jackson Heights you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 930 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Jackson Heights-wide figureread your own land →