Weddington, 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.
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 Weddington, 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 Weddington 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 Weddington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Weddington — the short answer
Weddington, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 11K 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 Weddington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Weddington's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Weddington
Each reading below is measured for Weddington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWeddington runs about 259 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
MeasuredWeddington 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 Weddington is in
Weddington sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Weddington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Union County.
What Grows in Weddington
Every plant below cleared Weddington's own zone 8a and its 259-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Weddington?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Weddington
Survey cells within 31 miles of Weddington checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Weddington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Weddington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNITED AMERICAN STEELToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- MARKET EXPRESS #370Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HARRIS TEETER 343Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- THE FOREST LAWN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- FILTEK FILTRATION PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- Folger HillMining · 2.3 mi
- CENTRAL BAPTIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Moore Hill MineMining · 2.4 mi
- Mint HillMining · 2.4 mi
- Davis MineMining · 2.4 mi
- HARRIS TEETER 249Brownfields · 2.5 mi
- BILL MELTON FARM & GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Weddington'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 Weddington.
Total Sites
603
within ~10 miles of Weddington
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Weddington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Weddington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Weddington, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 43 sites within ~10 miles of Weddington. 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 Weddington
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 Weddington average
Your land is one point inside Weddington
Everything above resolves to Weddington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Weddington Average
Weddington Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Weddington
- ●One soil character for all of Weddington
- ●Frost dates read at Weddington's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Weddington's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Weddington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Weddington, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Weddington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Weddington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Weddington average
How we know this about Weddington
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 Weddington’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 Weddington
When does frost risk typically end in Weddington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Weddington typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Weddington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Weddington typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 259 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Weddington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Weddington sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 10, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Weddington?
The federal record around Weddington runs heavier than most — 603 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (299), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Weddington?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Weddington's scale — its 8a band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Weddington'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 Weddington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Weddington's own scale — its own ~259-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,218 acres it covers and 603 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Weddington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Weddington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 24 and the ~259-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 603 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Weddington, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Weddington's boundary and the 11,218 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Weddington's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Weddington 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 Weddington's 11,218 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Union County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Union 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 Union County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Weddington's 11,218 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Weddington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,218 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.4 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 Weddington-wide figureread your own land →
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