Silver Lake, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Silver Lake, 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 Silver Lake 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 Silver Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Silver Lake — the short answer
Silver Lake, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 280 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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
- 2K 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 Silver Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Silver Lake's 280-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Silver Lake
Each reading below is measured for Silver Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSilver Lake runs about 280 days between hard freezes (read from New Hanover County, the closest normal to Silver Lake) — 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
MeasuredSilver Lake 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 Silver Lake is in
Silver Lake sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Silver Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from New Hanover County.
What Grows in Silver Lake
Every plant below cleared Silver Lake'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 Silver Lake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Silver Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Silver Lake, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Silver Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Silver Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #1348Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- M. J. PITSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SHEETZ #903Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- EASTWOOD SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NH-349Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- MURPHY USA 6786Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SCOTCHMAN 3181Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NH-347 USGSNitrate · 0.8 mi
- JUNCTION HARDWARE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- THE CAPE MASTER SYSTEMPFAS · 0.8 mi
- CFPUA/MONTEREY HEIGHTSPFAS · 0.8 mi
- JA ALFORD SEAFOOD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Silver Lake'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 Silver Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Silver Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Silver Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Silver Lake, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Silver Lake. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Silver Lake
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 Silver Lake average
Your land is one point inside Silver Lake
Everything above resolves to Silver Lake as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K 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 Silver Lake Average
Silver Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Silver Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Silver Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Silver Lake's scale: Feb 28 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Silver Lake's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Silver Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Silver Lake, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Silver Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Silver Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Silver Lake average
How we know this about Silver Lake
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 Silver Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Silver Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Silver Lake 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 Silver Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Silver Lake 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 Silver Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Silver Lake 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 Silver Lake?
The federal record around Silver Lake runs heavier than most — 882 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (489), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Silver Lake?
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 Silver Lake's scale — its 8b band and its 280-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Silver Lake'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 Silver Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Silver Lake's own scale — the 1,578 acres it covers and 882 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Silver Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 882 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Silver Lake, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Silver Lake's boundary and the 1,578 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 Silver Lake's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Silver Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Silver Lake 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 Silver Lake's 1,578 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 Silver Lake's 1,578 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Silver Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,578 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Silver Lake-wide figureread your own land →