Rich Square, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rich Square, 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 Rich Square 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 Rich Square — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rich Square — the short answer
Rich Square, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- 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
- ~241
- 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 8a is Rich Square's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rich Square's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rich Square
Each reading below is measured for Rich Square itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRich Square runs about 241 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
MeasuredRich Square 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 Rich Square is in
Rich Square sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rich Square's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Northampton County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Rich Square
Every plant below cleared Rich Square's own zone 8a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rich Square?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (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 Rich Square
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Rich Square, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rich Square
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rich Square. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MYLCRAST MFG CORPBrownfields · 100 ft
- ROANOKE ELECTRIC MEMBERSHIP CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- DUCK THRU FOOD STORE 38Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- BEST FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- RED APPLE MARKET 42Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- COTTON GINUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- R.V. TANN AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- C.W.S. ELECTRIC CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- HENRY A. BENNETT FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- C G HALL OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- NO-096 W C WORRELLNitrate · 1100 ft
- NO-097 W C WORRELLNitrate · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rich Square'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 Rich Square.
Total Sites
98
within ~10 miles of Rich Square
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rich Square
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rich Square
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rich Square, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rich Square — Nitrate (28 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (62 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Rich Square
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 Rich Square average
Your land is one point inside Rich Square
Everything above resolves to Rich Square 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 Rich Square Average
Rich Square Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Rich Square
- ●One soil character for all of Rich Square
- ●Frost dates read at Rich Square's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rich Square's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rich Square
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rich Square, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rich Square averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rich Square — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rich Square average
How we know this about Rich Square
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 Rich Square’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 Rich Square
When does frost risk typically end in Rich Square?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rich Square typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Rich Square?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rich Square 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 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rich Square?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rich Square sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 3, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rich Square?
The federal record around Rich Square shows 98 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), the nearest Brownfields 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 Rich Square?
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 Rich Square's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rich Square'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 Rich Square’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rich Square's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,975 acres it covers and 98 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rich Square's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rich Square's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 17 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 98 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rich Square, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rich Square's boundary and the 1,975 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rich Square sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Rich Squarelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rich Square's 1,975 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Northampton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Northampton 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 Northampton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rich Square's 1,975 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rich Square you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,975 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Rich Square-wide figureread your own land →