Ossipee, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ossipee, 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 Ossipee 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 Ossipee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ossipee — the short answer
Ossipee, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 388 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 388 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 Ossipee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ossipee's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ossipee
Each reading below is measured for Ossipee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOssipee runs about 238 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
MeasuredOssipee 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 Ossipee is in
Ossipee sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ossipee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alamance County.
What Grows in Ossipee
Every plant below cleared Ossipee's own zone 8a and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ossipee?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Ossipee
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Ossipee, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ossipee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ossipee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AM-222 NR OSSIPEE, NC FELSIC METAIGNEOUSNitrate · 1800 ft
- NORTH CREST MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GLEN RAVEN TRANSPORTATION DIV.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ALTAMAHAW OSSIPEE VOL. FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- UNIFI - GLEN RAVEN TOUCH YARN CO LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- MONARCH HOSIERY MILLS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- WILLIE SAULS & SON PLUMBING, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LEIGHS STOP & SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- ROGER BEAUCHESNE GEN. CONT.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- GIBSONVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- FIRE DISTRICT 28 INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- DRY CREEK LIFT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ossipee'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 Ossipee.
Total Sites
653
within ~10 miles of Ossipee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ossipee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ossipee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ossipee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ossipee — Underground Storage Tanks (447 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (43 sites). 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.
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 Ossipee
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 Ossipee average
Your land is one point inside Ossipee
Everything above resolves to Ossipee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 388 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 Ossipee Average
Ossipee Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ossipee
- ●One soil character for all of Ossipee
- ●Frost dates read at Ossipee's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ossipee's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ossipee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ossipee, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ossipee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ossipee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ossipee average
How we know this about Ossipee
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 Ossipee’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 Ossipee
When does frost risk typically end in Ossipee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ossipee typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Ossipee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ossipee typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ossipee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ossipee sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 30, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ossipee?
The federal record around Ossipee is a meaningful one — 653 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (447), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Ossipee?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ossipee's scale — its 8a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ossipee'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 Ossipee’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ossipee's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 388 acres it covers and 653 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ossipee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ossipee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 13 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 653 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ossipee, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ossipee's boundary and the 388 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ossipee's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ossipeelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ossipee's 388 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alamance County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alamance 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 Alamance County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ossipee's 388 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ossipee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 388 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Ossipee-wide figureread your own land →
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