Star, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — 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 Star, 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 Star 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 Star — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Star — the short answer
Star, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 244 days between hard freezes, across 827 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~244
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 827 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 Star's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Star's 244-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Star
Each reading below is measured for Star itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStar runs about 244 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
MeasuredStar 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 Star is in
Star sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Star's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Star
Every plant below cleared Star's own zone 8a and its 244-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Star?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Star
Survey cells within 31 miles of Star checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 40 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Star
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Star. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUIK CHECK 13Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- HAYES SAUNDERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- STAR SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CALLICUTT'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- EASTSIDE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BLACK ANKLE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FRUIT OF THE LOOM HSG-TROY PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MG-006Nitrate · 950 ft
- SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MG-007Nitrate · 2000 ft
- FRUIT OF THE LOOM HOSIERYToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- MG-003Nitrate · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Star'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 Star.
Total Sites
198
within ~10 miles of Star
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Star
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Star
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Star, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Star — Toxics Release Inventory (16 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (135 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 Star
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 Star average
Your land is one point inside Star
Everything above resolves to Star as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 827 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 Star Average
Star Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Star
- ●One soil character for all of Star
- ●Frost dates read at Star's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Star's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Star
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Star, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Star averages can't show:
We read public map data around Star — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Star average
How we know this about Star
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 Star’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 Star
When does frost risk typically end in Star?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Star typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Star?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Star typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 244 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Star?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Star sees about 244 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 4, about 209 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Star?
The federal record around Star is a meaningful one — 198 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (135), 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 Star?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Star's scale — its 8a band and its 244-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Star'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 Star’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Star's own scale — its own ~244-day season between 28°F freezes, the 827 acres it covers and 198 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Star's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Star's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 18 and the ~244-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 198 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Star, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Star's boundary and the 827 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~244-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Star's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Star 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 Star's 827 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Star's 827 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Star you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 827 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 Star-wide figureread your own land →
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