Tarboro, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tarboro, 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 Tarboro 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 Tarboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tarboro — the short answer
Tarboro, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Tarboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tarboro's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tarboro
Each reading below is measured for Tarboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTarboro runs about 257 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
MeasuredTarboro 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 Tarboro is in
Tarboro sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tarboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Edgecombe County.
What Grows in Tarboro
Every plant below cleared Tarboro's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tarboro?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Tarboro
Survey cells within 31 miles of Tarboro checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 46 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tarboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tarboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EDGECOMBE CTY BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- RUNNYMEDE MILLS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- RUNNYMEDE MILLS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- F.S. ROYSTER MERCANTILE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- L.R. LANCASTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- L. R. LANCASTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BI-RITE MARKET 4Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PARADE ON WESTERN BOULEVARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- WEBB'S TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DENNIS HOWARD TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WHITLEY GROCERY & PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MAYO KNITTING INC-PLANT 2&3Toxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tarboro'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 Tarboro.
Total Sites
257
within ~10 miles of Tarboro
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tarboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tarboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tarboro, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Tarboro. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Tarboro
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 Tarboro average
Your land is one point inside Tarboro
Everything above resolves to Tarboro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Tarboro Average
Tarboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Tarboro
- ●One soil character for all of Tarboro
- ●Frost dates read at Tarboro's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tarboro's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tarboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tarboro, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tarboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tarboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tarboro average
How we know this about Tarboro
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 Tarboro’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 Tarboro
When does frost risk typically end in Tarboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tarboro typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Tarboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tarboro 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 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tarboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tarboro sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 12, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tarboro?
The federal record around Tarboro is a meaningful one — 257 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (149), 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 Tarboro?
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 Tarboro's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tarboro'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 Tarboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Tarboro's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,214 acres it covers and 257 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tarboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tarboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 26 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 257 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tarboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tarboro's boundary and the 7,214 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tarboro's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Tarboro 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 Tarboro's 7,214 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Edgecombe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Edgecombe 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 Edgecombe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tarboro's 7,214 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tarboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,214 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 Tarboro-wide figureread your own land →