Oak Ridge, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — 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, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oak Ridge, 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 Oak Ridge 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 Oak Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oak Ridge — the short answer
Oak Ridge, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- 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
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 11K 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 Oak Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oak Ridge's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oak Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Oak Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOak Ridge runs about 252 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
MeasuredOak Ridge 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 Oak Ridge is in
Oak Ridge sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oak Ridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Guilford County.
What Grows in Oak Ridge
Every plant below cleared Oak Ridge's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oak Ridge?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (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. 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 Oak Ridge
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Oak Ridge, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Oak Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oak Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WINSTON-SALEM, CITY OFPFAS · 25 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #6033Brownfields · 600 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY #161Brownfields · 900 ft
- QUALITY MART 49Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- OAK RIDGE GAS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BILL & RAY'S GAS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VALVE SITE (MLV 155-20)Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- CRUTCHFIELD GRADING, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- GU-514 NEAR OAK RIDGE, NCNitrate · 1.7 mi
- LAST MINUTE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- PAUL S MERRITTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- OAKFIELD GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oak Ridge'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 Oak Ridge.
Total Sites
848
within ~10 miles of Oak Ridge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oak Ridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oak Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oak Ridge, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Oak Ridge. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Oak Ridge
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 Oak Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Oak Ridge
Everything above resolves to Oak Ridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Oak Ridge Average
Oak Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Oak Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Oak Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Oak Ridge's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oak Ridge's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oak Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oak Ridge, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oak Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oak Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oak Ridge average
How we know this about Oak Ridge
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 Oak Ridge’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 Oak Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Oak Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Ridge typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Oak Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Ridge 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 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oak Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oak Ridge sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 7, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oak Ridge?
The federal record around Oak Ridge is a meaningful one — 848 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (473), the nearest PFAS 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 Oak Ridge?
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 Oak Ridge's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oak Ridge'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 Oak Ridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Oak Ridge's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,719 acres it covers and 848 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oak Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oak Ridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 21 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 848 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oak Ridge, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oak Ridge's boundary and the 10,719 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oak Ridge's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Oak Ridgelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oak Ridge's 10,719 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Guilford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Guilford 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 Guilford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oak Ridge's 10,719 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oak Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,719 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Oak Ridge-wide figureread your own land →
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