Sneads Ferry, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sneads Ferry, 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 Sneads Ferry 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 Sneads Ferry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sneads Ferry — the short answer
Sneads Ferry, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- Onslow County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Onslow County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- Onslow 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 Onslow County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Sneads Ferry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sneads Ferry's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sneads Ferry
Each reading below is measured for Sneads Ferry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSneads Ferry runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from Onslow County, the closest normal to Sneads Ferry) — 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
MeasuredSneads Ferry 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 Sneads Ferry is in
Sneads Ferry sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sneads Ferry's own centroid rather than borrowed from Onslow County.
What Grows in Sneads Ferry
Every plant below cleared Sneads Ferry's own zone 8b and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sneads Ferry?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 Sneads Ferry
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sneads Ferry checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sneads Ferry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sneads Ferry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SNEADS FERRY BOATING ACCESS AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SWAN POINT MARINA - SNEADS FERRYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SWAN POINT MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- NEW RIVER MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HANDY MART 140Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- JOHN BROWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- NORTH SHORE COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- S & L MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- L.T.EVERETT & SONS SEAFOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- LUCAS GROCER JR LUCASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- SNEADS FERRY EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ANNS VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sneads Ferry'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 Sneads Ferry.
Total Sites
43
within ~10 miles of Sneads Ferry
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sneads Ferry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sneads Ferry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sneads Ferry, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Sneads Ferry. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sneads Ferry
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 Sneads Ferry average
Your land is one point inside Sneads Ferry
Everything above resolves to Sneads Ferry as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Onslow 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 Sneads Ferry Average
Sneads Ferry Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sneads Ferry
- ●One soil character for all of Sneads Ferry
- ●Frost dates read at Sneads Ferry's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sneads Ferry's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sneads Ferry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sneads Ferry, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sneads Ferry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sneads Ferry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sneads Ferry average
How we know this about Sneads Ferry
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 Onslow 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 Sneads Ferry
When does frost risk typically end in Sneads Ferry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sneads Ferry typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Sneads Ferry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sneads Ferry typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sneads Ferry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sneads Ferry sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 11, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sneads Ferry?
The federal record around Sneads Ferry is light — 43 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sneads Ferry?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sneads Ferry's scale — its 8b band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sneads Ferry'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 Sneads Ferry’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sneads Ferry's own scale — the 2,432 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sneads Ferry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sneads Ferry, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sneads Ferry's boundary and the 2,432 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sneads Ferry's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sneads Ferry checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sneads Ferry has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Onslow County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sneads Ferry's 2,432 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Onslow County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Onslow 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 Onslow County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sneads Ferry's 2,432 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sneads Ferry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,432 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sneads Ferry-wide figureread your own land →