Linville, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Linville, 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 Linville 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 Linville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Linville — the short answer
Linville, North Carolina: USDA zone 6b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- 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 6b is Linville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Linville's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Linville
Each reading below is measured for Linville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLinville runs about 190 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLinville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Linville is in
Linville sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Linville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Avery County.
What Grows in Linville
Every plant below cleared Linville's own zone 6b and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Linville?
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 Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Linville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Linville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 38 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Linville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Linville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PRICE POINT CONVENIENCE STORELLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PARKWAY JUNCTION, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GRANDFATHER MOUNTAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LINVILLE LAND HARBOR POAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LINVILLE UNION 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LINVILLE RIDGE COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- GRANDFATHER GOLD & COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- NC DOT - NEWLAND (DIV ELEVEN)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- LOWERY'S BARBEQUE COMPANY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- C L LOVEN LUMBER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- VAUGHAN BLUE RIDGE NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- BANNERS CABINETS INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Linville'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 Linville.
Total Sites
100
within ~10 miles of Linville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Linville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Linville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Linville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of Linville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Linville
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 Linville average
Your land is one point inside Linville
Everything above resolves to Linville 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 Linville Average
Linville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Linville
- ●One soil character for all of Linville
- ●Frost dates read at Linville's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Linville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Linville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Linville, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Linville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Linville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Linville average
How we know this about Linville
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 Linville’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 Linville
When does frost risk typically end in Linville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Linville typically lands around Apr 17, 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 May 8.
When is the first frost in Linville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Linville typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Linville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Linville sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 10, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Linville?
The federal record around Linville is a meaningful one — 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), 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 Linville?
From about Sep 24 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 Oct 24 (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 Oct 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Linville's scale — its 6b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Linville'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 Linville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Linville's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,142 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Linville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Linville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 24 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Linville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Linville's boundary and the 1,142 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Linville's own centroid, the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Linville 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 Linville's 1,142 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Avery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Avery 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 Avery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Linville's 1,142 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Linville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,142 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 Linville-wide figureread your own land →