La Grange, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 La Grange, 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 La Grange 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 La Grange — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
La Grange — the short answer
La Grange, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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
- 1K 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 La Grange's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Grange's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Grange
Each reading below is measured for La Grange itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLa Grange runs about 255 days between hard freezes (read from Lenoir County, the closest normal to La Grange) — 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
MeasuredLa Grange 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 La Grange is in
La Grange sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at La Grange's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lenoir County.
What Grows in La Grange
Every plant below cleared La Grange'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 La Grange?
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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around La Grange
Survey cells within 31 miles of La Grange checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 59 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near La Grange
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Grange. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JAMES WHITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- OAKDALE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- JENNY LEND STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- JASON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- MMM INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- W.A. HARDY, JR. GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- J C BRYAN SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- LIDA HARDISONUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- LAKEVIEW PACKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- JIMMIE D HERRINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- LENOIR COUNTY LANDFILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- A.B. DAUGHETY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Grange'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 La Grange.
Total Sites
205
within ~10 miles of La Grange
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Grange
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Grange
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Grange, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of La Grange. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in La Grange
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 La Grange average
Your land is one point inside La Grange
Everything above resolves to La Grange as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K 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 La Grange Average
La Grange Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across La Grange
- ●One soil character for all of La Grange
- ●Frost dates read at La Grange's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Grange's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Grange
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Grange, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Grange averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Grange — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Grange average
How we know this about La Grange
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 La Grange
When does frost risk typically end in La Grange?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Grange 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 La Grange?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Grange 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 La Grange?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Grange 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 La Grange?
The federal record around La Grange is a meaningful one — 205 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (108), 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 La Grange?
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 La Grange's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Grange'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 La Grange’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at La Grange's own scale — the 1,474 acres it covers and 205 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Grange's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 205 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Grange, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Grange's boundary and the 1,474 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 La Grange's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around La Grange checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — La Grange 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 La Grange's 1,474 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 La Grange's 1,474 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Grange you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,474 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 La Grange-wide figureread your own land →