Warrenton, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Warrenton, 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 Warrenton 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 Warrenton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Warrenton — the short answer
Warrenton, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 651 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 651 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 Warrenton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Warrenton's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Warrenton
Each reading below is measured for Warrenton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWarrenton runs about 238 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
MeasuredWarrenton 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 Warrenton is in
Warrenton sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Warrenton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Warren County.
What Grows in Warrenton
Every plant below cleared Warrenton's own zone 8a and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Warrenton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Warrenton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Warrenton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 34 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Warrenton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Warrenton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FASHION CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- WALGREENS #16150Brownfields · 650 ft
- WARRENTON FIRESuperfund · 650 ft
- ODOM MOTOR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- R & H SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CAM'S 76Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CROWN CLEANERSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- N.C. DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- J.B. RUSSELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BEST BET FOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SOLD STATION TO WILLIE N. COOPERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- POWELLS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Warrenton'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 Warrenton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Warrenton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Warrenton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Warrenton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 98 sites within ~10 miles of Warrenton. 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 Warrenton
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 Warrenton average
Your land is one point inside Warrenton
Everything above resolves to Warrenton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 651 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 Warrenton Average
Warrenton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Warrenton
- ●One soil character for all of Warrenton
- ●Frost dates read at Warrenton's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Warrenton's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Warrenton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Warrenton, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Warrenton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Warrenton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Warrenton average
How we know this about Warrenton
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 Warrenton’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 Warrenton
When does frost risk typically end in Warrenton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Warrenton typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Warrenton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Warrenton typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Warrenton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Warrenton sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 1, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Warrenton?
The federal record around Warrenton is a meaningful one — 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (98), 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 Warrenton?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Warrenton's scale — its 8a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Warrenton'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 Warrenton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Warrenton's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 651 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Warrenton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Warrenton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 15 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Warrenton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Warrenton's boundary and the 651 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Warrenton's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Warrenton 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 Warrenton's 651 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warren 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 Warren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Warrenton's 651 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Warrenton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 651 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 Warrenton-wide figureread your own land →
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