Stedman, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Stedman, 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 Stedman 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 Stedman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stedman — the short answer
Stedman, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- Cumberland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Cumberland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- Cumberland County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Cumberland County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Stedman's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stedman's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stedman
Each reading below is measured for Stedman itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsStedman runs about 261 days between hard freezes (read from Cumberland County, the closest normal to Stedman) — 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
MeasuredStedman 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 Stedman is in
Stedman sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Stedman's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cumberland County.
What Grows in Stedman
Every plant below cleared Stedman's own zone 8b and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stedman?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Stedman
Survey cells within 31 miles of Stedman checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 59 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stedman
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stedman. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 301 ENVIRONMENTAL SITESuperfund · 1200 ft
- STEADMAN HAPPY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- AUTRY'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CRUMPLERS AUTOMOTIVE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DRAUGHON'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CLIFFS FAST STOP 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- JOHNSONS GAS & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- STRICKLANDS INC 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- STRICKLAND'S 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- 210 MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- CIRCLE K 2723997Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- STRICKLANDS 5Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stedman'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 Stedman.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stedman
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stedman
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stedman, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Stedman — Superfund (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Stedman
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 Stedman average
Your land is one point inside Stedman
Everything above resolves to Stedman as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Cumberland 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 Stedman Average
Stedman Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Stedman
- ●One soil character for all of Stedman
- ●Frost dates read at Stedman's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stedman's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stedman
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stedman, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stedman averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stedman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stedman average
How we know this about Stedman
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 Cumberland 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 Stedman
When does frost risk typically end in Stedman?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stedman typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Stedman?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stedman typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stedman?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stedman sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 12, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stedman?
The federal record around Stedman is a meaningful one — 162 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (111), the nearest Superfund record about 0.2 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 Stedman?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stedman's scale — its 8b band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stedman'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 Stedman’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Stedman's own scale — the 1,084 acres it covers and 162 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stedman's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 162 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stedman, the closest Superfund record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stedman's boundary and the 1,084 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stedman's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Stedman checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Stedman has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Cumberland County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stedman's 1,084 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cumberland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cumberland 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 Cumberland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stedman's 1,084 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stedman you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,084 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.2 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 Stedman-wide figureread your own land →
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