Old Hundred, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Old Hundred, 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 Old Hundred 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 Old Hundred — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Old Hundred — the short answer
Old Hundred, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 621 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- 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
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 621 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 Old Hundred's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Old Hundred's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Old Hundred
Each reading below is measured for Old Hundred itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOld Hundred runs about 254 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
MeasuredOld Hundred 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 Old Hundred is in
Old Hundred sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Old Hundred's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scotland County.
What Grows in Old Hundred
Every plant below cleared Old Hundred's own zone 8a and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Old Hundred?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Old Hundred
Survey cells within 31 miles of Old Hundred checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 81 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Old Hundred
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Old Hundred. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLE TIME GENERAL STORE CRUZ N MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NORRIS AUTO REPAIRSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LAUREL HILL 7-11Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FARM AND COUNTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LAUREL HILL CARPET MILLToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- OLD WIRE ROAD CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- SISTER'S PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- LAUREL HILL CARPET MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- FIELD CREST CARPET MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- SCOTLAND OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- LAUREL HILL FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- LAUREL HILL SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Old Hundred'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 Old Hundred.
Total Sites
255
within ~10 miles of Old Hundred
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Old Hundred
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Old Hundred
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Old Hundred, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Old Hundred — Underground Storage Tanks (196 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (16 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Old Hundred
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 Old Hundred average
Your land is one point inside Old Hundred
Everything above resolves to Old Hundred as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 621 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 Old Hundred Average
Old Hundred Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Old Hundred
- ●One soil character for all of Old Hundred
- ●Frost dates read at Old Hundred's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Old Hundred's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Old Hundred
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Old Hundred, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Old Hundred averages can't show:
We read public map data around Old Hundred — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Old Hundred average
How we know this about Old Hundred
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 Old Hundred’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 Old Hundred
When does frost risk typically end in Old Hundred?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Old Hundred typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Old Hundred?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Old Hundred 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 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Old Hundred?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Old Hundred sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 7, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Old Hundred?
The federal record around Old Hundred is a meaningful one — 255 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (196), 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 Old Hundred?
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 Old Hundred's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Old Hundred'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 Old Hundred’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Old Hundred's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 621 acres it covers and 255 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Old Hundred's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Old Hundred's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 21 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 255 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Old Hundred, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Old Hundred's boundary and the 621 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Old Hundred's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Old Hundred 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 Old Hundred's 621 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scotland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scotland 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 Scotland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Old Hundred's 621 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Old Hundred you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 621 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 Old Hundred-wide figureread your own land →
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