Summerfield, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Summerfield, 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 Summerfield 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 Summerfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Summerfield — the short answer
Summerfield, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 17K 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 Summerfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Summerfield's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Summerfield
Each reading below is measured for Summerfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSummerfield runs about 243 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
MeasuredSummerfield 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 Summerfield is in
Summerfield sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Summerfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Guilford County.
What Grows in Summerfield
Every plant below cleared Summerfield's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Summerfield?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Summerfield
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Summerfield, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Summerfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Summerfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SIMPSON'S, LONNIE'S AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- GASTOWN 1Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- M.V. WINFREE & SONS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PRICE AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #5532Brownfields · 1600 ft
- WALGREENS #10675Brownfields · 2000 ft
- SUMMERFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MARKET EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KNIGHT'S FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BOBBY JAMESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ASPHALT PAVING CO OF GREENSBOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SCARLETTES SERV CTR (GASTOWN 3)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Summerfield'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 Summerfield.
Total Sites
956
within ~10 miles of Summerfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Summerfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Summerfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Summerfield, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 61 sites within ~10 miles of Summerfield. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Summerfield
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 Summerfield average
Your land is one point inside Summerfield
Everything above resolves to Summerfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 17K 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 Summerfield Average
Summerfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Summerfield
- ●One soil character for all of Summerfield
- ●Frost dates read at Summerfield's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Summerfield's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Summerfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Summerfield, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Summerfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Summerfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Summerfield average
How we know this about Summerfield
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 Summerfield’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 Summerfield
When does frost risk typically end in Summerfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Summerfield typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Summerfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Summerfield typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Summerfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Summerfield sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 2, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Summerfield?
The federal record around Summerfield is a meaningful one — 956 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (554), 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 Summerfield?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Summerfield's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Summerfield'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 Summerfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Summerfield's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 16,893 acres it covers and 956 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Summerfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Summerfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 16 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 956 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Summerfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Summerfield's boundary and the 16,893 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Summerfield's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Summerfieldlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Summerfield's 16,893 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Guilford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Guilford 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 Guilford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Summerfield's 16,893 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Summerfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,893 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 Summerfield-wide figureread your own land →
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