North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Wilkesboro, 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 North Wilkesboro 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 North Wilkesboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Wilkesboro — the short answer
North Wilkesboro, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 North Wilkesboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Wilkesboro's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Wilkesboro
Each reading below is measured for North Wilkesboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Wilkesboro runs about 225 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
MeasuredNorth Wilkesboro 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 North Wilkesboro is in
North Wilkesboro sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Wilkesboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wilkes County.
What Grows in North Wilkesboro
Every plant below cleared North Wilkesboro's own zone 7b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Wilkesboro?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around North Wilkesboro
Survey cells within 31 miles of North Wilkesboro checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 37 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Wilkesboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Wilkesboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLD WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- NORTH WILKESBORO BRANCH OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SPEEDWAY #7902Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KEY CITY AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- LEASEWAY TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- YADKIN VALLEY MOTOR CO.. INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1800 ft
- SPEEDWAY #7904Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Copper ProspectMining · 2500 ft
- JOHN CULLER'S BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CAROLINA MIRROR CO LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- MIKE`S BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- JOHNSON CARD ACCESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Wilkesboro'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 North Wilkesboro.
Total Sites
312
within ~10 miles of North Wilkesboro
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
23 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Wilkesboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Wilkesboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Wilkesboro, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Wilkesboro — PFAS (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (23 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in North Wilkesboro
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 North Wilkesboro average
Your land is one point inside North Wilkesboro
Everything above resolves to North Wilkesboro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 North Wilkesboro Average
North Wilkesboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across North Wilkesboro
- ●One soil character for all of North Wilkesboro
- ●Frost dates read at North Wilkesboro's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Wilkesboro's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Wilkesboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Wilkesboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Wilkesboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Wilkesboro average
How we know this about North Wilkesboro
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 North Wilkesboro’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 North Wilkesboro
When does frost risk typically end in North Wilkesboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Wilkesboro typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in North Wilkesboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Wilkesboro typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Wilkesboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Wilkesboro sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 24, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Wilkesboro?
The federal record around North Wilkesboro is a meaningful one — 312 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (229), 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 North Wilkesboro?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Wilkesboro's scale — its 7b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Wilkesboro'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 North Wilkesboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Wilkesboro's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,243 acres it covers and 312 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Wilkesboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Wilkesboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 7 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 312 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Wilkesboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Wilkesboro's boundary and the 4,243 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Wilkesboro's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around North Wilkesboro 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 North Wilkesboro's 4,243 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wilkes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wilkes 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 Wilkes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Wilkesboro's 4,243 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Wilkesboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,243 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 North Wilkesboro-wide figureread your own land →
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