Kenly, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kenly, 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 Kenly 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 Kenly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kenly — the short answer
Kenly, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Kenly's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kenly's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kenly
Each reading below is measured for Kenly itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKenly runs about 253 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredKenly 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 Kenly is in
Kenly sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kenly's own centroid rather than borrowed from Johnston County.
What Grows in Kenly
Every plant below cleared Kenly's own zone 8a and its 253-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kenly?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Kenly
Survey cells within 31 miles of Kenly checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 31 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kenly
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kenly. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KENLY INSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KENLY EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- KENLY SERVICENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- KENLY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KENLY TEXACO & FOOD MART, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KELLEYS QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ROBO GRILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PERDUE FARMS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MOORE'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- OLLIE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- OVERTON CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MRS. WALTER HOWELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kenly'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 Kenly.
Total Sites
212
within ~10 miles of Kenly
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kenly
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kenly
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kenly, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Kenly. 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 Kenly
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 Kenly average
Your land is one point inside Kenly
Everything above resolves to Kenly as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K acres. 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 Kenly Average
Kenly Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Kenly
- ●One soil character for all of Kenly
- ●Frost dates read at Kenly's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kenly's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kenly
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kenly, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kenly averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kenly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kenly average
How we know this about Kenly
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 Kenly’s own record; 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 Kenly
When does frost risk typically end in Kenly?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kenly typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Kenly?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kenly typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 253 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kenly?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kenly sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 8, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kenly?
The federal record around Kenly is a meaningful one — 212 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (130), 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 Kenly?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kenly's scale — its 8a band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kenly'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 Kenly’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kenly's own scale — its own ~253-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,203 acres it covers and 212 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kenly's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kenly's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 22 and the ~253-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 212 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kenly, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kenly's boundary and the 1,203 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kenly's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Kenly checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kenly's 1,203 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Johnston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Johnston 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 Johnston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kenly's 1,203 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kenly you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,203 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 Kenly-wide figureread your own land →