Marshall, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Marshall, 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 Marshall 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 Marshall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marshall — the short answer
Marshall, North Carolina: USDA zone 7a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 7a is Marshall's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marshall's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marshall
Each reading below is measured for Marshall itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarshall runs about 204 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
MeasuredMarshall sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Marshall is in
Marshall sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marshall's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Marshall
Every plant below cleared Marshall's own zone 7a and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marshall?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Marshall
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from Marshall, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Marshall
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marshall. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NC DOT - MARSHALL (DIV 13)Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GILBERTS GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CLARENCE ROBERTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ROBERT E. FRISBYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MARTIN'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- EARL RICE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CLARENCE CUTSHAW GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FRED SHELTON GULF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WALNUT CASH & CARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- O.A. GREGORY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- LOIS DAVISUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BROWNS AUTO SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marshall'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 Marshall.
Total Sites
126
within ~10 miles of Marshall
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marshall
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marshall
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marshall, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Marshall — Mining (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (88 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Marshall
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 Marshall average
Your land is one point inside Marshall
Everything above resolves to Marshall as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Marshall Average
Marshall Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Marshall
- ●One soil character for all of Marshall
- ●Frost dates read at Marshall's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marshall's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marshall
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marshall, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marshall averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marshall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marshall average
How we know this about Marshall
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 Marshall’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 Marshall
When does frost risk typically end in Marshall?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marshall typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Marshall?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marshall typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marshall?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marshall sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 14, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marshall?
The federal record around Marshall is a meaningful one — 126 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (88), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Marshall?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marshall's scale — its 7a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marshall'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 Marshall’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Marshall's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,549 acres it covers and 126 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marshall's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marshall's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 28 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 126 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marshall, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marshall's boundary and the 2,549 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marshall's own centroid, the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Marshalllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marshall's 2,549 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marshall's 2,549 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marshall you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,549 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Marshall-wide figureread your own land →