Kure Beach, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kure Beach, 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 Kure Beach 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 Kure Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kure Beach — the short answer
Kure Beach, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 280 days between hard freezes, across 563 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- New Hanover County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- New Hanover County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~280
- New Hanover County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 563 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 New Hanover County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Kure Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kure Beach's 280-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kure Beach
Each reading below is measured for Kure Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKure Beach runs about 280 days between hard freezes (read from New Hanover County, the closest normal to Kure Beach) — 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
MeasuredKure Beach 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 Kure Beach is in
Kure Beach sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kure Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from New Hanover County.
What Grows in Kure Beach
Every plant below cleared Kure Beach's own zone 8b and its 280-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kure Beach?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Kure Beach
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from Kure Beach, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kure Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kure Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORT FISHER STATE HISTORIC STUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SOUTHERN BELL - KRBHNCKAUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ISLAND KWIK MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- NH-504 L C KURENitrate · 550 ft
- BODENHAMER'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- NH-890 NR KURE BEACH, NC CASTLE HAYNENitrate · 1400 ft
- NH-407 KURE BEACH MUNNitrate · 1700 ft
- TOWN OF KURE BEACHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- NH-861 NR KURE BEACH, NC PEEDEENitrate · 0.8 mi
- FORT FISHER TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NH-409 701 ST RADAR SQNitrate · 1.0 mi
- NH-410 701 ST RADAR SQNitrate · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kure Beach'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 Kure Beach.
Total Sites
219
within ~10 miles of Kure Beach
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kure Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kure Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kure Beach, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kure Beach — PFAS (6 sites) and Nitrate (94 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Kure Beach
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 Kure Beach average
Your land is one point inside Kure Beach
Everything above resolves to Kure Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 563 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from New Hanover 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 Kure Beach Average
Kure Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Kure Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Kure Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Kure Beach's scale: Feb 28 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kure Beach's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kure Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kure Beach, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kure Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kure Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kure Beach average
How we know this about Kure Beach
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 New Hanover 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 Kure Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Kure Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kure Beach typically lands around Feb 28, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Kure Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kure Beach typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 280 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kure Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kure Beach sees about 280 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 21, about 245 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kure Beach?
The federal record around Kure Beach is a meaningful one — 219 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (94), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Kure Beach?
From about Nov 5 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 Dec 5 (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 Dec 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kure Beach's scale — its 8b band and its 280-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kure Beach'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 Kure Beach’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kure Beach's own scale — the 563 acres it covers and 219 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kure Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 219 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kure Beach, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kure Beach's boundary and the 563 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~280-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kure Beach's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kure Beachlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kure Beach has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom New Hanover County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kure Beach's 563 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom New Hanover County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom New Hanover 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 New Hanover County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kure Beach's 563 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kure Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 563 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Kure Beach-wide figureread your own land →