St. James, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 St. James, 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 St. James 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 St. James — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
St. James — the short answer
St. James, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- Brunswick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Brunswick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- Brunswick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Brunswick County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is St. James's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against St. James's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in St. James
Each reading below is measured for St. James itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSt. James runs about 265 days between hard freezes (read from Brunswick County, the closest normal to St. James) — 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
MeasuredSt. James 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 St. James is in
St. James sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at St. James's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brunswick County.
What Grows in St. James
Every plant below cleared St. James's own zone 8b and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in St. James?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around St. James
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from St. James, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near St. James
Closest first, within ~10 miles of St. James. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BR-238 BRUNSWICK CO O-8 SOUTHPORTNitrate · 0.8 mi
- BR-237 BRUNSWICK CO O-7 SOUTHPORTNitrate · 0.9 mi
- BR-240 BRUNSWICK CO O-11 SOUTHPORTNitrate · 1.4 mi
- BR-241 BRUNSWICK CO O-12 SOUTHPORTNitrate · 1.4 mi
- BR-101 WELL 11ANitrate · 1.4 mi
- BRUNSWICK ELECTRIC MEMBERSHIP COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LIFT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ST. JAMES PLANTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BRUNSWICK COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BR-232 BRUNSWICK CO O-1 SOUTHPORTNitrate · 2.0 mi
- BR-233 BRUNSWICK CO O-2 SOUTHPORTNitrate · 2.0 mi
- SOUTHERN BELL-GLC 21826Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from St. James'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 St. James.
Total Sites
198
within ~10 miles of St. James
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of St. James
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of St. James
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around St. James, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of St. James — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (86 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 St. James
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 St. James average
Your land is one point inside St. James
Everything above resolves to St. James as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Brunswick 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 St. James Average
St. James Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across St. James
- ●One soil character for all of St. James
- ●Frost dates read at St. James's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not St. James's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in St. James
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in St. James, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that St. James averages can't show:
We read public map data around St. James — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the St. James average
How we know this about St. James
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 Brunswick 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 St. James
When does frost risk typically end in St. James?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in St. James typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in St. James?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in St. James typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in St. James?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, St. James sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 14, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in St. James?
The federal record around St. James is a meaningful one — 198 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 St. James?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at St. James's scale — its 8b band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of St. James'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 St. James’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at St. James's own scale — the 5,833 acres it covers and 198 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- St. James's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 198 documented contamination sites on the federal record near St. James, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- St. James's boundary and the 5,833 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at St. James's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of St. Jameslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — St. James has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Brunswick County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so St. James's 5,833 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brunswick County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brunswick 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 Brunswick County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among St. James's 5,833 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of St. James you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,833 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 St. James-wide figureread your own land →