Scotland Neck, 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 Scotland Neck, 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 Scotland Neck 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 Scotland Neck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Scotland Neck — the short answer
Scotland Neck, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 250 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 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- 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 Scotland Neck's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scotland Neck's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scotland Neck
Each reading below is measured for Scotland Neck itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredScotland Neck runs about 250 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
MeasuredScotland Neck 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 Scotland Neck is in
Scotland Neck sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Scotland Neck's own centroid rather than borrowed from Halifax County.
What Grows in Scotland Neck
Every plant below cleared Scotland Neck's own zone 8a and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scotland Neck?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 22 — 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 Scotland Neck
Survey cells within 31 miles of Scotland Neck checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 31 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Scotland Neck
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scotland Neck. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOORES AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- GREEN STAR STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- ZIP MART 48Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- TOWN OF SCOTLAND NECKUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- GEORGE L. COLEMAN JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- JONS QUICK SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ALLSBROOK OIL CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EP-MART 7Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DUCK THRU #56Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- RICK'S AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SHENANDOAH WOOD PRESERVERSToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- SHENANDOAH WOOD PRESERVERSBrownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scotland Neck'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 Scotland Neck.
Total Sites
59
within ~10 miles of Scotland Neck
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scotland Neck
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scotland Neck
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scotland Neck, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 45 sites within ~10 miles of Scotland Neck. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Scotland Neck
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 Scotland Neck average
Your land is one point inside Scotland Neck
Everything above resolves to Scotland Neck 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 Scotland Neck Average
Scotland Neck Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Scotland Neck
- ●One soil character for all of Scotland Neck
- ●Frost dates read at Scotland Neck's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scotland Neck's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scotland Neck
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scotland Neck, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scotland Neck averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scotland Neck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scotland Neck average
How we know this about Scotland Neck
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 Scotland Neck’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 Scotland Neck
When does frost risk typically end in Scotland Neck?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scotland Neck 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 Scotland Neck?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scotland Neck typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scotland Neck?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scotland Neck sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 8, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scotland Neck?
The federal record around Scotland Neck shows 59 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Scotland Neck?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Scotland Neck's scale — its 8a band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scotland Neck'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 Scotland Neck’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Scotland Neck's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 760 acres it covers and 59 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scotland Neck's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scotland Neck's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 22 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 59 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scotland Neck, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scotland Neck's boundary and the 760 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scotland Neck's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Scotland Neck 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 Scotland Neck's 760 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Halifax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Halifax 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 Halifax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scotland Neck's 760 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scotland Neck 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 Scotland Neck-wide figureread your own land →