Roberdel, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Roberdel, 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 Roberdel 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 Roberdel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Roberdel — the short answer
Roberdel, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 422 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 422 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 Roberdel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Roberdel's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Roberdel
Each reading below is measured for Roberdel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRoberdel runs about 253 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
MeasuredRoberdel 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 Roberdel is in
Roberdel sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Roberdel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Richmond County.
What Grows in Roberdel
Every plant below cleared Roberdel's own zone 8a and its 253-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Roberdel?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Roberdel
Survey cells within 31 miles of Roberdel checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 68 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Roberdel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Roberdel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RI-019 ROBERDEL MUNNitrate · 2600 ft
- BREAD & BUTTER, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PLANTATION PANTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TOMMY GROC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- FIRESTONE STORE PN 119563Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- FIRESTONE STORE 0572Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- HENRY RANDOLPH COATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- ALCO 15Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- NORTHSIDE CAR WASH AND EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- JAMES STEPHENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- CRESTVIEW 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- CATAWBA TIMBER CO DISTRICT 5Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Roberdel'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 Roberdel.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Roberdel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Roberdel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Roberdel, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Roberdel — Superfund (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (230 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Roberdel
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 Roberdel average
Your land is one point inside Roberdel
Everything above resolves to Roberdel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 422 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 Roberdel Average
Roberdel Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Roberdel
- ●One soil character for all of Roberdel
- ●Frost dates read at Roberdel's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Roberdel's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Roberdel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Roberdel, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Roberdel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Roberdel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Roberdel average
How we know this about Roberdel
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 Roberdel’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 Roberdel
When does frost risk typically end in Roberdel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Roberdel typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Roberdel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Roberdel typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 253 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Roberdel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Roberdel sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 6, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Roberdel?
The federal record around Roberdel is a meaningful one — 325 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (230), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Roberdel?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Roberdel's scale — its 8a band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Roberdel'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 Roberdel’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Roberdel's own scale — its own ~253-day season between 28°F freezes, the 422 acres it covers and 325 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Roberdel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Roberdel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 20 and the ~253-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 325 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Roberdel, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Roberdel's boundary and the 422 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Roberdel's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Roberdel 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 Roberdel's 422 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Richmond County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Richmond 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 Richmond County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Roberdel's 422 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Roberdel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 422 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Roberdel-wide figureread your own land →