Speed, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Speed, 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 Speed 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 Speed — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Speed — the short answer
Speed, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 195 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 195 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 Speed's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Speed's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Speed
Each reading below is measured for Speed itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpeed runs about 255 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
MeasuredSpeed 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 Speed is in
Speed sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Speed's own centroid rather than borrowed from Edgecombe County.
What Grows in Speed
Every plant below cleared Speed's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Speed?
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 24 — 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 Speed
Survey cells within 31 miles of Speed checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 42 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Speed
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Speed. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MANNINGS GROCERY & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ED-177 I25-I3Nitrate · 1400 ft
- STEVE BREWER FARMCAFO · 2.6 mi
- KINGS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- SCOTCHMAN 93Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- SPENCER BRADLEY FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- HOBGOOD SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- KWIK KORNER MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- WILEY WHITEHEADUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- HA-146 L F WHITEHURSTNitrate · 5.2 mi
- EVERETTE GROCERY & GRILL (SOLD)Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- ANDERSON-TALBERT PEANUT COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Speed'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 Speed.
Total Sites
186
within ~10 miles of Speed
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Speed
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Speed
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Speed, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Speed — Toxics Release Inventory (19 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (125 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Speed
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 Speed average
Your land is one point inside Speed
Everything above resolves to Speed as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 195 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 Speed Average
Speed Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Speed
- ●One soil character for all of Speed
- ●Frost dates read at Speed's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Speed's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Speed
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Speed, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Speed averages can't show:
We read public map data around Speed — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Speed average
How we know this about Speed
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 Speed’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 Speed
When does frost risk typically end in Speed?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Speed 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 Speed?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Speed typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Speed?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Speed sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 10, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Speed?
The federal record around Speed is a meaningful one — 186 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (125), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Speed?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Speed's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Speed'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 Speed’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Speed's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 195 acres it covers and 186 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Speed's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Speed's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 24 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 186 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Speed, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Speed's boundary and the 195 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Speed's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Speed 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 Speed's 195 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Edgecombe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Edgecombe 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 Edgecombe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Speed's 195 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Speed you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 195 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Speed-wide figureread your own land →