Reidsville, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Reidsville, 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 Reidsville 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 Reidsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Reidsville — the short answer
Reidsville, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 9K 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 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Reidsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Reidsville's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Reidsville
Each reading below is measured for Reidsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredReidsville runs about 242 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
MeasuredReidsville 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 Reidsville is in
Reidsville sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Reidsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rockingham County.
What Grows in Reidsville
Every plant below cleared Reidsville's own zone 8a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Reidsville?
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 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 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Reidsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Reidsville, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Reidsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Reidsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARCHDALE OIL CO. NO. 14Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- RENTZ OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PENNROSE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SOUTH SCALES MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PENNROSE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- REIDSVILLE FAMILY FARE 397Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- N.G. WASHBURN'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JOE KING CONSTRUCTION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- J. GLENN SAUNDERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FLOWER'S BAKERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WAGONER ELECTRIC CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WILLIAMS-TRULL CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Reidsville'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 Reidsville.
Total Sites
325
within ~10 miles of Reidsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Reidsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Reidsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Reidsville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 219 sites within ~10 miles of Reidsville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Reidsville
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 Reidsville average
Your land is one point inside Reidsville
Everything above resolves to Reidsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Reidsville Average
Reidsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Reidsville
- ●One soil character for all of Reidsville
- ●Frost dates read at Reidsville's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Reidsville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Reidsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Reidsville, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Reidsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Reidsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Reidsville average
How we know this about Reidsville
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 Reidsville’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 Reidsville
When does frost risk typically end in Reidsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Reidsville 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 Reidsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Reidsville typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Reidsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Reidsville sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 3, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Reidsville?
The federal record around Reidsville is a meaningful one — 325 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (219), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Reidsville?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Reidsville's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Reidsville'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 Reidsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Reidsville's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,479 acres it covers and 325 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Reidsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Reidsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 17 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 325 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Reidsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Reidsville's boundary and the 9,479 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Reidsville's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Reidsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Reidsville's 9,479 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rockingham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rockingham 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 Rockingham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Reidsville's 9,479 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Reidsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,479 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Reidsville-wide figureread your own land →
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