Kelly, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Kelly, 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 Kelly 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 Kelly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kelly — the short answer
Kelly, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Bladen County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Kelly's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kelly's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kelly
Each reading below is measured for Kelly itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKelly runs about 263 days between hard freezes (read from Bladen County, the closest normal to Kelly) — 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
MeasuredKelly 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 Kelly is in
Kelly sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kelly's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bladen County.
What Grows in Kelly
Every plant below cleared Kelly's own zone 8b and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kelly?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 27 — 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 Kelly
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Kelly, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kelly
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kelly. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BL-013 BAPTIST CHURCHNitrate · 0.6 mi
- BL-014Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- L.W. PORTER EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- MRS. J.B. JORDAN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- NORRIS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- SINGLETARY LAKE GROUP CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- PARTY LITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- LCP CHEMICALS - N.C., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- GRACE BLANKS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- KINGS BLUFF PUMPING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- SWEENEY WATER PLANT-KING'S BLUFFUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- FEDERAL WOOD PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kelly'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 Kelly.
Total Sites
56
within ~10 miles of Kelly
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kelly
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kelly
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kelly, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kelly — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (16 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Kelly
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 Kelly average
Your land is one point inside Kelly
Everything above resolves to Kelly as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bladen 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 Kelly Average
Kelly Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Kelly
- ●One soil character for all of Kelly
- ●Frost dates read at Kelly's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kelly's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kelly
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kelly, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kelly averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kelly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kelly average
How we know this about Kelly
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 Bladen 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 Kelly
When does frost risk typically end in Kelly?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kelly 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 Kelly?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kelly typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kelly?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kelly sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 13, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kelly?
The federal record around Kelly is a meaningful one — 56 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (31), the nearest Nitrate 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 Kelly?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kelly's scale — its 8b band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kelly'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 Kelly’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kelly's own scale — the 7,419 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kelly's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kelly, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kelly's boundary and the 7,419 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kelly's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kellylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kelly has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bladen County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kelly's 7,419 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bladen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bladen 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 Bladen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kelly's 7,419 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kelly you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,419 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Kelly-wide figureread your own land →