Sunset Beach, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Sunset Beach, 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 Sunset Beach 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 Sunset Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sunset Beach — the short answer
Sunset Beach, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 4K 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
- 4K 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 Sunset Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunset Beach's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunset Beach
Each reading below is measured for Sunset Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSunset Beach runs about 265 days between hard freezes (read from Brunswick County, the closest normal to Sunset Beach) — 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
MeasuredSunset Beach 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 Sunset Beach is in
Sunset Beach sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sunset Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brunswick County.
What Grows in Sunset Beach
Every plant below cleared Sunset Beach'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 Sunset Beach?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Sunset Beach
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sunset Beach checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 43 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sunset Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunset Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BONAPARTE SEAFOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SUNSET BEACH MAINTENANCE DEPARTMUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BR-262Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- CALABASH REAL ESTATE CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CARTER'S VARIETY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WALGREENS #7749Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- BREWER-HENDLEY OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #7048Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- MINUTEMAN 14Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BR-263Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- SHADY PARK EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CIRCLE K 2723999Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunset Beach'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 Sunset Beach.
Total Sites
205
within ~10 miles of Sunset Beach
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunset Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunset Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunset Beach, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 141 sites within ~10 miles of Sunset Beach. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sunset Beach
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 Sunset Beach average
Your land is one point inside Sunset Beach
Everything above resolves to Sunset Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K 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 Sunset Beach Average
Sunset Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sunset Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Sunset Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Sunset Beach's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunset Beach's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunset Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunset Beach, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunset Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunset Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunset Beach average
How we know this about Sunset Beach
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 Sunset Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Sunset Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunset Beach 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 Sunset Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunset Beach 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 Sunset Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunset Beach 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 Sunset Beach?
The federal record around Sunset Beach is a meaningful one — 205 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (141), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sunset Beach?
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 Sunset Beach's scale — its 8b band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunset Beach'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 Sunset Beach’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sunset Beach's own scale — the 4,324 acres it covers and 205 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunset Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 205 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunset Beach, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunset Beach's boundary and the 4,324 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 Sunset Beach's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sunset Beach checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sunset Beach 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 Sunset Beach's 4,324 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 Sunset Beach's 4,324 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunset Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,324 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sunset Beach-wide figureread your own land →