Carolina, Rhode Island, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Carolina, 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 Carolina 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 Carolina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Carolina — the short answer
Carolina, Rhode Island: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6b is Carolina's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carolina's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carolina
Each reading below is measured for Carolina itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarolina runs about 219 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
MeasuredCarolina sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Carolina is in
Carolina sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Carolina's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Carolina
Every plant below cleared Carolina's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Rhode Island profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carolina?
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 Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Carolina
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Carolina, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Carolina
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carolina. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRIMES AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2500 ft
- RIDOT - BUTTER LANE AT ROUTE 112Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- NEW ENGLAND TELEPHONE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WRIGHT'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CAROLINA BACK ROAD/OLD SHANNOCK ROAD AREASuperfund · 0.7 mi
- HOLLY ESTATES (ASSESS. PLAT 27 LOT 64)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- RI-RIW 16Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- RI-RIW 365Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- RI-RIW 366Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- BEAVER RIVER DUMPSuperfund · 1.4 mi
- RI-RIW 357Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- RI-RIW 367Nitrate · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carolina'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 Carolina.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carolina
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carolina
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carolina, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Carolina — Superfund (17 sites) and Nitrate (282 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Carolina
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 Carolina average
Your land is one point inside Carolina
Everything above resolves to Carolina as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Carolina Average
Carolina Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Carolina
- ●One soil character for all of Carolina
- ●Frost dates read at Carolina's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carolina's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carolina
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carolina, Rhode Island — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carolina averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carolina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carolina average
How we know this about Carolina
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 Carolina’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 Carolina
When does frost risk typically end in Carolina?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carolina typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Carolina?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carolina typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carolina?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carolina sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 25, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carolina?
The federal record around Carolina is a meaningful one — 698 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (282), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Carolina?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carolina's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carolina'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 Carolina’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Carolina's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,575 acres it covers and 698 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carolina's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carolina's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 8 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 698 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carolina, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carolina's boundary and the 1,575 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carolina's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Carolinalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carolina's 1,575 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington County
- The growing challenges every Rhode Island grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Rhode Island
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carolina's 1,575 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carolina you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,575 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Carolina-wide figureread your own land →
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