Laurinburg, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Laurinburg, 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 Laurinburg 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 Laurinburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Laurinburg — the short answer
Laurinburg, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Scotland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Scotland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- Scotland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Scotland County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Laurinburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Laurinburg's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Laurinburg
Each reading below is measured for Laurinburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLaurinburg runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from Scotland County, the closest normal to Laurinburg) — 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
MeasuredLaurinburg 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 Laurinburg is in
Laurinburg sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Laurinburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scotland County.
What Grows in Laurinburg
Every plant below cleared Laurinburg's own zone 8a and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Laurinburg?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Laurinburg
Survey cells within 31 miles of Laurinburg checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 87 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Laurinburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Laurinburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NICS PIC KWIK #14Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MURPHY USA 6760Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LOWE'S OF LAURINBURG, NC #2564Brownfields · 1700 ft
- WALGREENS #15648Brownfields · 1700 ft
- SPEEDWAY #8180Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- NCDSCA DC830001 (ONE HOUR CLEANERS)Brownfields · 2200 ft
- HERMANS TIRE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MCLAURIN-MCARTHUR CHEVROLET CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #1255Brownfields · 2300 ft
- S. MAIN ST. 66 SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SCOTLAND'S STOP & SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CIRCLE K 2723136Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Laurinburg'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 Laurinburg.
Total Sites
301
within ~10 miles of Laurinburg
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Laurinburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Laurinburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Laurinburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Laurinburg — Toxics Release Inventory (25 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (208 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Laurinburg
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 Laurinburg average
Your land is one point inside Laurinburg
Everything above resolves to Laurinburg as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Scotland County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Laurinburg Average
Laurinburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Laurinburg
- ●One soil character for all of Laurinburg
- ●Frost dates read at Laurinburg's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Laurinburg's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Laurinburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Laurinburg, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Laurinburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Laurinburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Laurinburg average
How we know this about Laurinburg
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Scotland 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Laurinburg
When does frost risk typically end in Laurinburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Laurinburg typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Laurinburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Laurinburg 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 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Laurinburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Laurinburg sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 8, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Laurinburg?
The federal record around Laurinburg is a meaningful one — 301 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (208), 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 Laurinburg?
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 Laurinburg's scale — its 8a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Laurinburg'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 Laurinburg’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Laurinburg's own scale — the 8,030 acres it covers and 301 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Laurinburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 301 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Laurinburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Laurinburg's boundary and the 8,030 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Laurinburg's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Laurinburg checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Laurinburg has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Scotland County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Laurinburg's 8,030 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scotland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scotland 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 Scotland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Laurinburg's 8,030 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Laurinburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,030 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 Laurinburg-wide figureread your own land →
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