Raleigh, 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.
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 Raleigh, 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 Raleigh 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 Raleigh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Raleigh — the short answer
Raleigh, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 97K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 97K 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 Raleigh's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Raleigh's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Raleigh
Each reading below is measured for Raleigh itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRaleigh runs about 248 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
MeasuredRaleigh 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 Raleigh is in
Raleigh sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Raleigh's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wake County.
What Grows in Raleigh
Every plant below cleared Raleigh's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Raleigh?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Raleigh
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Raleigh, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Raleigh
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Raleigh. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CVS PHARMACY #17012Brownfields · 1600 ft
- TARGET STORE T1892Brownfields · 1600 ft
- MARSH'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- NCDSCA DC920017 (BROTHERS CLEANERS)Brownfields · 2100 ft
- PHILLIPS 66 COMPANY #016687Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- HARRIS TEETER 422Brownfields · 2500 ft
- NORTH HILLS EXXON SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NORTH HILLS EXXONBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- WALGREENS #16147Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- ROSEMART 207Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NORTHSIDE SUBSTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CROWN NC 26Brownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Raleigh'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 Raleigh.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Raleigh
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Raleigh
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Raleigh
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 Raleigh average
Your land is one point inside Raleigh
Everything above resolves to Raleigh as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 97K 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 Raleigh Average
Raleigh Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Raleigh
- ●One soil character for all of Raleigh
- ●Frost dates read at Raleigh's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Raleigh's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Raleigh
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Raleigh, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Raleigh averages can't show:
We read public map data around Raleigh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Raleigh average
How we know this about Raleigh
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 Raleigh’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 Raleigh
When does frost risk typically end in Raleigh?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Raleigh typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Raleigh?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Raleigh typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Raleigh?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Raleigh sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 5, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Raleigh?
The federal record around Raleigh is a meaningful one — 1,664 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (998), 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 Raleigh?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Raleigh's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Raleigh'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 Raleigh’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Raleigh's own scale — its own ~248-day season between 28°F freezes, the 96,598 acres it covers and 1,664 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Raleigh's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Raleigh's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 19 and the ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,664 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Raleigh, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Raleigh's boundary and the 96,598 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Raleigh's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Raleighlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Raleigh's 96,598 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wake 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 Wake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Raleigh's 96,598 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Raleigh you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 96,598 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 Raleigh-wide figureread your own land →
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Growing region
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