Pine Level, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Pine Level, 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 Pine Level 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 Pine Level — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pine Level — the short answer
Pine Level, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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
- 1K 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 Pine Level's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Level's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Level
Each reading below is measured for Pine Level itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPine Level 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
MeasuredPine Level 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 Pine Level is in
Pine Level sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pine Level's own centroid rather than borrowed from Johnston County.
What Grows in Pine Level
Every plant below cleared Pine Level'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 Pine Level?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. 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 Pine Level
Spotted lanternfly documented 31 miles from Pine Level, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pine Level
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Level. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PITTMAN`S AUTO PAINT & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1700 ft
- PINE LEVEL FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- HANDY MART 17Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- J.P. PITTMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- KORNEGAY'S INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- W L MYERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MICRO-PINE LEVEL ELM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NORTHSIDE SEWER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BALLPARK #45Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- TIMS ALIGNMENT & BRAKE SERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- W & W AUTO CENTER INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine Level'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 Pine Level.
Total Sites
380
within ~10 miles of Pine Level
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine Level
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Level
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine Level, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Pine Level. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Pine Level
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 Pine Level average
Your land is one point inside Pine Level
Everything above resolves to Pine Level as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Pine Level Average
Pine Level Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Pine Level
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Level
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Level's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Level's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Level
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Level, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Level averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Level — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Level average
How we know this about Pine Level
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 Pine Level’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 Pine Level
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Level?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Level 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 Pine Level?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Level 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 Pine Level?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Level 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 Pine Level?
The federal record around Pine Level is a meaningful one — 380 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (220), the nearest Brownfields 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 Pine Level?
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 Pine Level's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Level'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 Pine Level’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pine Level's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,143 acres it covers and 380 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Level's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pine Level's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 21 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 380 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Level, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Level's boundary and the 1,143 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 Pine Level's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pine Levellydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Level's 1,143 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Johnston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Johnston 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 Johnston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pine Level's 1,143 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Level you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,143 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Pine Level-wide figureread your own land →