Rhodhiss, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Rhodhiss, 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 Rhodhiss 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 Rhodhiss — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rhodhiss — the short answer
Rhodhiss, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 760 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 760 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 Rhodhiss's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rhodhiss's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rhodhiss
Each reading below is measured for Rhodhiss itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRhodhiss 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
MeasuredRhodhiss 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 Rhodhiss is in
Rhodhiss sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rhodhiss's own centroid rather than borrowed from Burke County.
What Grows in Rhodhiss
Every plant below cleared Rhodhiss'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 Rhodhiss?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Rhodhiss
Survey cells within 31 miles of Rhodhiss checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 39 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rhodhiss
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rhodhiss. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RHODHISS PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- THE OLE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BRITTAIN BOAT LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MARKET BASKET #22Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MARLOW FURNITURE CO INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CARPENTER'S REPAIR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- C.C. & W.W. TRIPLETTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CCON METALS USA, INC.Brownfields · 1.9 mi
- MARKET BASKET #23Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- PEPSI-COLA BOTTLING CO. OF HICKORY INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- JIFFY PACKAGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- HUFFMAN FINISHING CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rhodhiss'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 Rhodhiss.
Total Sites
889
within ~10 miles of Rhodhiss
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rhodhiss
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rhodhiss
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rhodhiss, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rhodhiss — Toxics Release Inventory (84 sites) and Superfund (15 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Rhodhiss
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 Rhodhiss average
Your land is one point inside Rhodhiss
Everything above resolves to Rhodhiss as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 760 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 Rhodhiss Average
Rhodhiss Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Rhodhiss
- ●One soil character for all of Rhodhiss
- ●Frost dates read at Rhodhiss's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rhodhiss's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rhodhiss
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rhodhiss, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rhodhiss averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rhodhiss — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rhodhiss average
How we know this about Rhodhiss
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 Rhodhiss’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 Rhodhiss
When does frost risk typically end in Rhodhiss?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rhodhiss typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Rhodhiss?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rhodhiss typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rhodhiss?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rhodhiss sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Oct 31, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rhodhiss?
The federal record around Rhodhiss is a meaningful one — 889 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (571), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Rhodhiss?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rhodhiss's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rhodhiss'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 Rhodhiss’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rhodhiss's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 760 acres it covers and 889 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rhodhiss's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rhodhiss's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 14 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 889 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rhodhiss, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rhodhiss's boundary and the 760 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 Rhodhiss's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Rhodhiss 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 Rhodhiss's 760 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Burke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Burke 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 Burke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rhodhiss's 760 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rhodhiss you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 760 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 Rhodhiss-wide figureread your own land →
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