Laurel Park, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Laurel Park, 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 Laurel Park 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 Laurel Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Laurel Park — the short answer
Laurel Park, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7b is Laurel Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Laurel Park's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Laurel Park
Each reading below is measured for Laurel Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLaurel Park runs about 221 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
MeasuredLaurel Park sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Laurel Park is in
Laurel Park sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Laurel Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henderson County.
What Grows in Laurel Park
Every plant below cleared Laurel Park's own zone 7b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Laurel Park?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Laurel Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Laurel Park, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Laurel Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Laurel Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORMS MINIT MART 5Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ENERGY MART 3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HENDERSONVILLE HEMATOLOGY/ONCOLOGYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- COATS TECHNOLOGY CNTRBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- WALGREENS 18220Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- FIFTH AVENUE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- COATS NORTH AMERICAToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- HENDERSONVILLE COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- VALLEY HILL VOL FIRE DEPT INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- HENDERSON CO SHELTERED WORKSHOPBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- PINEBROOK CIRCLE MERCURY SPILLSuperfund · 1.8 mi
- VALLEY HILL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Laurel Park'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 Laurel Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Laurel Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Laurel Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Laurel Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Laurel Park — Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Laurel Park
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 Laurel Park average
Your land is one point inside Laurel Park
Everything above resolves to Laurel Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Laurel Park Average
Laurel Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Laurel Park
- ●One soil character for all of Laurel Park
- ●Frost dates read at Laurel Park's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Laurel Park's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Laurel Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Laurel Park, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Laurel Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Laurel Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Laurel Park average
How we know this about Laurel Park
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 Laurel Park’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 Laurel Park
When does frost risk typically end in Laurel Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Laurel Park typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Laurel Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Laurel Park typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Laurel Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Laurel Park sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 23, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Laurel Park?
The federal record around Laurel Park is a meaningful one — 422 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (280), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Laurel Park?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Laurel Park's scale — its 7b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Laurel Park'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 Laurel Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Laurel Park's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,802 acres it covers and 422 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Laurel Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Laurel Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 6 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 422 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Laurel Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Laurel Park's boundary and the 1,802 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Laurel Park's own centroid, the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Laurel Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Laurel Park's 1,802 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henderson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henderson 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 Henderson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Laurel Park's 1,802 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Laurel Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,802 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Laurel Park-wide figureread your own land →