Polkville, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Polkville, 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 Polkville 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 Polkville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Polkville — the short answer
Polkville, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- 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
- City 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 Polkville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Polkville's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Polkville
Each reading below is measured for Polkville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPolkville 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
MeasuredPolkville 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 Polkville is in
Polkville sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Polkville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cleveland County.
What Grows in Polkville
Every plant below cleared Polkville'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 Polkville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Polkville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Polkville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 46 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Polkville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Polkville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUCK SAVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- SAVE MART #2 0110316Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- POLKVILLE VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT (FORMER GO-VIDIO)Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WOODS STORE & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HOMETOWN MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- POLKVILLE COMMUNITY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CV- 134Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- KINGS MOUNTAIN COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- JENKINS FOODS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- NEW HOUSE GROCERY & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- LAND APPLICATION SITE CL-08Toxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- LATTIMORE WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Polkville'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 Polkville.
Total Sites
189
within ~10 miles of Polkville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Polkville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Polkville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Polkville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Polkville — Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (148 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Polkville
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 Polkville average
Your land is one point inside Polkville
Everything above resolves to Polkville 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 city 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 Polkville Average
Polkville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Polkville
- ●One soil character for all of Polkville
- ●Frost dates read at Polkville's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Polkville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Polkville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Polkville, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Polkville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Polkville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Polkville average
How we know this about Polkville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Polkville’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Polkville
When does frost risk typically end in Polkville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Polkville 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 Polkville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Polkville 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 Polkville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Polkville 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 Polkville?
The federal record around Polkville shows 189 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (148), 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 Polkville?
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 Polkville's scale — its 8a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Polkville'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 Polkville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Polkville's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,192 acres it covers and 189 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Polkville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Polkville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 13 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 189 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Polkville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Polkville's boundary and the 1,192 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 Polkville's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Polkville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Polkville's 1,192 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cleveland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cleveland 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 Cleveland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Polkville's 1,192 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Polkville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,192 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 Polkville-wide figureread your own land →
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