Ocracoke, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ocracoke, 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 Ocracoke 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 Ocracoke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ocracoke — the short answer
Ocracoke, North Carolina: USDA zone 9a, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (statewide)
- Mar 11 - Mar 24
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- First hard freeze (statewide)
- Nov 10 - Nov 25
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- Town area
- 6K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Where no local normal resolves, the figure is the statewide middle-half window, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Growing Season
Zone 9a is Ocracoke's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against that, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ocracoke
Each reading below is measured for Ocracoke itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredOcracoke sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Ocracoke is in
Ocracoke sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ocracoke's own centroid rather than borrowed from its county.
What Grows in Ocracoke
Every plant below cleared Ocracoke's own zone 9a. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Ocracoke
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ocracoke. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OCRACOKE EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- BEACHCOMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- UNITED STATES COAST GUARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- THE COMMUNITY STORE DOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- USCG STATION OCRACOKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- OCRACOKE MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- OCRACOKE SCHOOL MERCURY SPILLSuperfund · 2.9 mi
- MOLASSES FUELS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- HY-020Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- HY-024 CORPS OF ENGNitrate · 5.7 mi
- HY-042 HAMMOCK OAKS P-ANitrate · 5.8 mi
- HY-061 NPS AT OCRACOKENitrate · 7.9 mi
1 more site is on the record inside the same radius.
Measured from Ocracoke'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 Ocracoke.
Total Sites
17
within ~10 miles of Ocracoke
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ocracoke
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Ocracoke
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 Ocracoke average
Your land is one point inside Ocracoke
Everything above resolves to Ocracoke as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Ocracoke Average
Ocracoke Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Ocracoke
- ●One soil character for all of Ocracoke
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ocracoke's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ocracoke
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ocracoke, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ocracoke averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ocracoke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ocracoke average
How we know this about Ocracoke
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Ocracoke
When does frost risk typically end in Ocracoke?
Ocracoke has no hard-freeze normal of its own, so it follows North Carolina's statewide window: the middle half of counties see their last spring hard freeze (28°F) around Mar 11 - Mar 24 and their first fall hard freeze around Nov 10 - Nov 25, per NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020). Frost dates shift with elevation and local microclimate, so watch your own site's cold pockets. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — light frosts can still bite for a few more weeks, so tender transplants usually wait another 2–3 weeks.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ocracoke?
The federal record around Ocracoke is a meaningful one — 17 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.7 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 Ocracoke?
As the season closes around North Carolina's statewide first fall hard freeze (28°F) near Nov 10 - Nov 25 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020)), 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 the first hard night. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ocracoke's scale — its 9a band and its zone 9a. Your yard writes its own version of Ocracoke'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 Ocracoke’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ocracoke's own scale — the 5,503 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 3 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ocracoke's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ocracoke, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ocracoke's boundary and the 5,503 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Ocracoke's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ocracoke's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The frost window — no local hard-freeze normal resolved here, so the statewide dates stand infrom North Carolina
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ocracoke's 5,503 acres read through the state summaryfrom North Carolina
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ocracoke's 5,503 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ocracoke you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,503 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.7 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 Ocracoke-wide figureread your own land →
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