Sea Breeze, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sea Breeze, 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 Sea Breeze 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 Sea Breeze — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sea Breeze — the short answer
Sea Breeze, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 280 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- New Hanover County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- New Hanover County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~280
- New Hanover County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are New Hanover County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Sea Breeze's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sea Breeze's 280-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sea Breeze
Each reading below is measured for Sea Breeze itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSea Breeze runs about 280 days between hard freezes (read from New Hanover County, the closest normal to Sea Breeze) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSea Breeze sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Sea Breeze is in
Sea Breeze sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sea Breeze's own centroid rather than borrowed from New Hanover County.
What Grows in Sea Breeze
Every plant below cleared Sea Breeze's own zone 8b and its 280-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sea Breeze?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Sea Breeze
Spotted lanternfly documented 12 miles from Sea Breeze, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sea Breeze
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sea Breeze. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SNOWS CUT CONVENIENT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- NH-388 R DAILYNitrate · 2300 ft
- HOMER H. WARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NH-544 NR CAROLINA BEACH, NC PEEDEENitrate · 0.7 mi
- CAROLINA INLET MARINA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NH-525 FF30G NR CAROLINA BEACH, NC PEEDEENitrate · 1.0 mi
- COURTNEY M WRIGHT, TRUSTEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LAKE PARK BLVDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WALGREENS #7981Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- NH-390 USGSNitrate · 1.4 mi
- DUKE ENERGY - WILMINGTON SOUTH L&D YARDBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- PLEASURE ISLAND VOL RESCUE SQUADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sea Breeze'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 Sea Breeze.
Total Sites
347
within ~10 miles of Sea Breeze
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sea Breeze
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sea Breeze
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sea Breeze, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sea Breeze — PFAS (5 sites) and Nitrate (112 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sea Breeze
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 Sea Breeze average
Your land is one point inside Sea Breeze
Everything above resolves to Sea Breeze as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from New Hanover County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Sea Breeze Average
Sea Breeze Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sea Breeze
- ●One soil character for all of Sea Breeze
- ●Frost dates read at Sea Breeze's scale: Feb 28 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sea Breeze's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sea Breeze
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sea Breeze, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sea Breeze averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sea Breeze — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sea Breeze average
How we know this about Sea Breeze
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 New Hanover County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Sea Breeze
When does frost risk typically end in Sea Breeze?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sea Breeze typically lands around Feb 28, 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 Mar 21.
When is the first frost in Sea Breeze?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sea Breeze typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 280 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sea Breeze?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sea Breeze sees about 280 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 21, about 245 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sea Breeze?
The federal record around Sea Breeze is a meaningful one — 347 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (145), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Sea Breeze?
From about Nov 5 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 Dec 5 (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 Dec 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sea Breeze's scale — its 8b band and its 280-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sea Breeze'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 Sea Breeze’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sea Breeze's own scale — the 1,193 acres it covers and 347 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sea Breeze's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 347 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sea Breeze, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sea Breeze's boundary and the 1,193 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~280-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sea Breeze's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Sea Breezelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sea Breeze has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom New Hanover County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sea Breeze's 1,193 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom New Hanover County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom New Hanover 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 New Hanover County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sea Breeze's 1,193 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sea Breeze you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,193 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Sea Breeze-wide figureread your own land →