Rutherfordton, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Rutherfordton, 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 Rutherfordton 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 Rutherfordton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rutherfordton — the short answer
Rutherfordton, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 7b is Rutherfordton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rutherfordton's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rutherfordton
Each reading below is measured for Rutherfordton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRutherfordton runs about 233 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
MeasuredRutherfordton sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Rutherfordton is in
Rutherfordton sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rutherfordton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rutherford County.
What Grows in Rutherfordton
Every plant below cleared Rutherfordton's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rutherfordton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Rutherfordton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Rutherfordton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 38 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rutherfordton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rutherfordton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KINGS W & WUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- GOLD HILL CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- SOUTHERN BELL-GLC 24156Underground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- HARDIN'S 66Underground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- LAKESIDE MILLS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- PARTON LUMBER CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- PIEDMONT COUNCIL SCOUT RESERVATIUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- THE PANTRY 139Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- RUTHERFORD REGIONAL HEALTH SYSTEMBrownfields · 1000 ft
- SCOTCHMAN/ONE STOP 3702Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SAI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #3559Brownfields · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rutherfordton'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 Rutherfordton.
Total Sites
304
within ~10 miles of Rutherfordton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
24 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rutherfordton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rutherfordton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rutherfordton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rutherfordton — Toxics Release Inventory (24 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (211 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Rutherfordton
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 Rutherfordton average
Your land is one point inside Rutherfordton
Everything above resolves to Rutherfordton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Rutherfordton Average
Rutherfordton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Rutherfordton
- ●One soil character for all of Rutherfordton
- ●Frost dates read at Rutherfordton's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rutherfordton's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rutherfordton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rutherfordton, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rutherfordton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rutherfordton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rutherfordton average
How we know this about Rutherfordton
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 Rutherfordton’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 Rutherfordton
When does frost risk typically end in Rutherfordton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rutherfordton typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Rutherfordton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rutherfordton typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rutherfordton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rutherfordton sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 28, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rutherfordton?
The federal record around Rutherfordton is a meaningful one — 304 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (211), 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 Rutherfordton?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rutherfordton's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rutherfordton'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 Rutherfordton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rutherfordton's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,655 acres it covers and 304 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rutherfordton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rutherfordton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 11 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 304 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rutherfordton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rutherfordton's boundary and the 2,655 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rutherfordton's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Rutherfordton 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 Rutherfordton's 2,655 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rutherford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rutherford 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 Rutherford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rutherfordton's 2,655 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rutherfordton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,655 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 Rutherfordton-wide figureread your own land →
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