Winton, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Winton, 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 Winton 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 Winton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Winton — the short answer
Winton, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 538 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- 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
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 538 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 Winton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winton's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winton
Each reading below is measured for Winton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWinton runs about 241 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
MeasuredWinton 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 Winton is in
Winton sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Winton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hertford County.
What Grows in Winton
Every plant below cleared Winton's own zone 8a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Winton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Winton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 35 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Winton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER MITCHELL'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BRADY'S TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DUCK THRU FOOD STORE 18Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- SEXTON LOGGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TOWN OF WINTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HF-030Nitrate · 2100 ft
- WINTON EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HERTFORD COUNTY COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HF-028 WINTON MUNNitrate · 2200 ft
- CAROLINA ALUMINUM-EXTRUDONICS DVUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CAROLINA ALUMINUM COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- WINTON'S DELI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winton'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 Winton.
Total Sites
214
within ~10 miles of Winton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Winton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Winton — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (144 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Winton
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 Winton average
Your land is one point inside Winton
Everything above resolves to Winton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 538 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 Winton Average
Winton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Winton
- ●One soil character for all of Winton
- ●Frost dates read at Winton's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winton's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winton, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winton average
How we know this about Winton
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 Winton’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 Winton
When does frost risk typically end in Winton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winton typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Winton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winton 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 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winton sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 1, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winton?
The federal record around Winton is a meaningful one — 214 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (144), 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 Winton?
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 Winton's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winton'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 Winton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Winton's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 538 acres it covers and 214 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Winton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 15 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 214 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winton's boundary and the 538 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Winton's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Winton 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 Winton's 538 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hertford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hertford 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 Hertford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Winton's 538 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 538 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 Winton-wide figureread your own land →
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