Pembroke, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Pembroke, 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 Pembroke 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 Pembroke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pembroke — the short answer
Pembroke, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- Robeson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- Robeson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- Robeson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Robeson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Pembroke's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pembroke's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pembroke
Each reading below is measured for Pembroke itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPembroke runs about 262 days between hard freezes (read from Robeson County, the closest normal to Pembroke) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPembroke sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Pembroke is in
Pembroke sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pembroke's own centroid rather than borrowed from Robeson County.
What Grows in Pembroke
Every plant below cleared Pembroke's own zone 8b and its 262-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pembroke?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Pembroke
Survey cells within 31 miles of Pembroke 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 Pembroke
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pembroke. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCI COMMUNICATIONS (PNBRNC)Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- PEMBROKE SOJOUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SOUTHERN STATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- PEMBROKE SPIRITUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PEMBROKE SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- RB-026 PEMBROKE MUN 1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- SAM OXENDINE 7-11 GRO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JAMES CLARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MT.AIRY SUPERETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BAYSIDE GRO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LOCKLEARS PERFORMANCE AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PEMBROKE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pembroke'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 Pembroke.
Total Sites
211
within ~10 miles of Pembroke
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pembroke
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pembroke
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pembroke, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 163 sites within ~10 miles of Pembroke. 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.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pembroke
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 Pembroke average
Your land is one point inside Pembroke
Everything above resolves to Pembroke as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Robeson County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Pembroke Average
Pembroke Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pembroke
- ●One soil character for all of Pembroke
- ●Frost dates read at Pembroke's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pembroke's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pembroke
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pembroke, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pembroke averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pembroke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pembroke average
How we know this about Pembroke
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 Robeson County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Pembroke
When does frost risk typically end in Pembroke?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pembroke typically lands around Mar 7, 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 Mar 28.
When is the first frost in Pembroke?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pembroke typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 262 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pembroke?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pembroke sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 10, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pembroke?
The federal record around Pembroke is a meaningful one — 211 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (163), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Pembroke?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pembroke's scale — its 8b band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pembroke'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 Pembroke’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pembroke's own scale — the 2,035 acres it covers and 211 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pembroke's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 211 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pembroke, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pembroke's boundary and the 2,035 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pembroke's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Pembroke checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pembroke has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Robeson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pembroke's 2,035 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Robeson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Robeson 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 Robeson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pembroke's 2,035 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pembroke you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,035 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Pembroke-wide figureread your own land →