Pleasant Hill, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pleasant 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 Pleasant 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 Pleasant Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pleasant Hill — the short answer
Pleasant Hill, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7b is Pleasant Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pleasant Hill's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pleasant Hill
Each reading below is measured for Pleasant Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPleasant Hill runs about 225 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
MeasuredPleasant Hill sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Pleasant Hill is in
Pleasant Hill sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pleasant Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wilkes County.
What Grows in Pleasant Hill
Every plant below cleared Pleasant Hill's own zone 7b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pleasant Hill?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Pleasant Hill
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Pleasant Hill, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pleasant Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pleasant Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAPLE HILL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PLEASANT HILL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ELKIN QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- VAUGHAN-BASSETT FURN./ELKIN DIV.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ELKINUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CARL ROSE & SONS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- B.N. COMBSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NEWMAN BROTHERS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BULLINS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ELKIN MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BULLINS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- W.E. SALE & SONS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pleasant 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 Pleasant Hill.
Total Sites
179
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Hill
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pleasant Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pleasant Hill — Underground Storage Tanks (140 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (11 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 Pleasant 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 Pleasant Hill average
Your land is one point inside Pleasant Hill
Everything above resolves to Pleasant Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Pleasant Hill Average
Pleasant Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Pleasant Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Pleasant Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Pleasant Hill's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pleasant Hill's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pleasant Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pleasant Hill, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pleasant Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pleasant Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pleasant Hill average
How we know this about Pleasant 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 Pleasant Hill’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 Pleasant Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Pleasant Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Hill typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Pleasant Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Hill typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pleasant Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pleasant Hill sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 24, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pleasant Hill?
The federal record around Pleasant Hill shows 179 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (140), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles 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 Pleasant Hill?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pleasant Hill's scale — its 7b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pleasant 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 Pleasant Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pleasant Hill's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,654 acres it covers and 179 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pleasant Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pleasant Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 7 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 179 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pleasant Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pleasant Hill's boundary and the 1,654 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pleasant Hill's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pleasant Hilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pleasant Hill's 1,654 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wilkes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wilkes 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 Wilkes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pleasant Hill's 1,654 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pleasant 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 1,654 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Pleasant Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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