Middlesex, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Middlesex, 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 Middlesex 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 Middlesex — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Middlesex — the short answer
Middlesex, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 669 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 669 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 8a is Middlesex's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Middlesex's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Middlesex
Each reading below is measured for Middlesex itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMiddlesex runs about 251 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
MeasuredMiddlesex 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 Middlesex is in
Middlesex sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Middlesex's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Nash County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Middlesex
Every plant below cleared Middlesex's own zone 8a and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Middlesex?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 21 — 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 Middlesex
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Middlesex, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Middlesex
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Middlesex. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STALLINGS BROS COASTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- CONE'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- FORMERLY FERRELLS GARMENT, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- JR. WOODARD GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- MIDDLESEX MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- BLUE OX STRUCTURES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- STAR FLITE LOCATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NA-215 MIDDLESEX MUNNitrate · 1600 ft
- THE PANTRY #154Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TRAN'S MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- STALLINGS BROS., INC. BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DOCS GAS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Middlesex'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 Middlesex.
Total Sites
156
within ~10 miles of Middlesex
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Middlesex
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Middlesex
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Middlesex, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 102 sites within ~10 miles of Middlesex. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Middlesex
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 Middlesex average
Your land is one point inside Middlesex
Everything above resolves to Middlesex as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 669 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 Middlesex Average
Middlesex Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Middlesex
- ●One soil character for all of Middlesex
- ●Frost dates read at Middlesex's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Middlesex's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Middlesex
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Middlesex, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Middlesex averages can't show:
We read public map data around Middlesex — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Middlesex average
How we know this about Middlesex
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 Middlesex’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 Middlesex
When does frost risk typically end in Middlesex?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Middlesex 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 Middlesex?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Middlesex typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Middlesex?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Middlesex sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 7, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Middlesex?
The federal record around Middlesex is a meaningful one — 156 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (102), 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 Middlesex?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Middlesex's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Middlesex'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 Middlesex’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Middlesex's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 669 acres it covers and 156 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Middlesex's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Middlesex's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 21 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 156 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Middlesex, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Middlesex's boundary and the 669 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Middlesex sits in the Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Middlesexlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Middlesex's 669 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nash County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nash 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 Nash County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Middlesex's 669 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Middlesex you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 669 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 Middlesex-wide figureread your own land →