Tar Heel, 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.
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 Tar Heel, 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 Tar Heel 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 Tar Heel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tar Heel — the short answer
Tar Heel, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 148 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- Bladen County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 148 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 Bladen County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Tar Heel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tar Heel's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tar Heel
Each reading below is measured for Tar Heel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTar Heel runs about 263 days between hard freezes (read from Bladen County, the closest normal to Tar Heel) — 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
MeasuredTar Heel 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 Tar Heel is in
Tar Heel sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tar Heel's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bladen County is mostly Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Tar Heel
Every plant below cleared Tar Heel's own zone 8b and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tar Heel?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Tar Heel
Survey cells within 31 miles of Tar Heel checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 62 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tar Heel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tar Heel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARTINS GAS & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- MINUTEMAN 18Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- TOLARSVILLE 76Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SMITHFIELD FRESH MEATS CORP - TAR HEELPFAS · 1400 ft
- SCOTCHMAN 170Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TAR HEEL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- RIVERSIDE RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SMITHFIELD PACKING COMPANY INCORPORATED - TAR HEELBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SMITHFIELD PACKING COMPANY INCORPORATED - TAR HEELToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- SMITHFIELD FRESH MEATS CORP. - TAR HEELSuperfund · 1.2 mi
- M AND P GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- E.I. DU PONT-FAYETTEVILLE WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tar Heel'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 Tar Heel.
Total Sites
63
within ~10 miles of Tar Heel
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tar Heel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tar Heel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tar Heel, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Tar Heel. 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 Tar Heel
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 Tar Heel average
Your land is one point inside Tar Heel
Everything above resolves to Tar Heel as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 148 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bladen 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 Tar Heel Average
Tar Heel Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Tar Heel
- ●One soil character for all of Tar Heel
- ●Frost dates read at Tar Heel's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tar Heel's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tar Heel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tar Heel, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tar Heel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tar Heel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tar Heel average
How we know this about Tar Heel
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 Bladen 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 Tar Heel
When does frost risk typically end in Tar Heel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tar Heel typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Tar Heel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tar Heel typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tar Heel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tar Heel sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 13, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tar Heel?
The federal record around Tar Heel is a meaningful one — 63 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tar Heel?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tar Heel's scale — its 8b band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tar Heel'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 Tar Heel’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tar Heel's own scale — the 148 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tar Heel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tar Heel, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tar Heel's boundary and the 148 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tar Heel sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Tar Heel checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tar Heel has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bladen County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tar Heel's 148 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bladen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bladen 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 Bladen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tar Heel's 148 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tar Heel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 148 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tar Heel-wide figureread your own land →