Pink Hill, 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.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Pink Hill, 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 Pink Hill 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 Pink Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pink Hill — the short answer
Pink Hill, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 297 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- Lenoir County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Lenoir County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- Lenoir County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 297 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 Lenoir County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Pink Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pink Hill's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pink Hill
Each reading below is measured for Pink Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPink Hill runs about 255 days between hard freezes (read from Lenoir County, the closest normal to Pink Hill) — 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
MeasuredPink Hill 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 Pink Hill is in
Pink Hill sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pink Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lenoir County.
What Grows in Pink Hill
Every plant below cleared Pink Hill's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pink Hill?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Pink Hill
Survey cells within 31 miles of Pink Hill checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 57 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pink Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pink Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- C-MART 13Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SHORT STOP 20Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- US POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- WOODROW SUMNER GARAGE SVC.Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- JARMANS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ROYSTER PAMLICO - PINK HILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LN-084Nitrate · 1200 ft
- TOWN OF PINK HILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JAMES HEATHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CHARLES & FAYE'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GUARDIAN PHARMACY OF EASTERN NORTH CAROLINABrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PINK HILL SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pink Hill'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 Pink Hill.
Total Sites
83
within ~10 miles of Pink Hill
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pink Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pink Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pink Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pink Hill — Nitrate (22 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (52 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pink Hill
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 Pink Hill average
Your land is one point inside Pink Hill
Everything above resolves to Pink Hill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 297 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lenoir 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 Pink Hill Average
Pink Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Pink Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Pink Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Pink Hill's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pink Hill's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pink Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pink Hill, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pink Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pink Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pink Hill average
How we know this about Pink Hill
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 Lenoir 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 Pink Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Pink Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pink Hill typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Pink Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pink Hill typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pink Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pink Hill sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 11, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pink Hill?
The federal record around Pink Hill shows 83 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (52), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pink Hill?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pink Hill's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pink Hill'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 Pink Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pink Hill's own scale — the 297 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pink Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pink Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pink Hill's boundary and the 297 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pink Hill's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Pink Hill checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pink Hill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lenoir County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pink Hill's 297 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lenoir County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lenoir 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 Lenoir County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pink Hill's 297 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pink Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 297 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Pink Hill-wide figureread your own land →