What USDA hardiness zone is Avery County, North Carolina?

Avery County, North Carolina spans USDA hardiness zones 6b to 7a. 75% of its ZIP codes are zone 6b, so there is no single zone for the county.

When is the last spring frost in Avery County, North Carolina?

The median last spring freeze runs April 26 – May 6 across the 4 NOAA weather stations serving Avery County, North Carolina, from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. Half of years freeze later than the median.

North Carolina

Planting zones in Avery County, North Carolina

This county spans USDA zones 6b to 7a, so there is no single zone for Avery County and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 75% of its ZIP codes are zone 6b; the rest are not.

USDA zones 6b–7a 2 zones across 8 ZIP codes

ZIP codes 8 8 have a NOAA station within range

Weather stations 4 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 247 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes Avery County, North Carolina as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.

The growing season in Avery County is closing

Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives October 12 – October 20 across the 4 NOAA stations serving this county .

Your next season already has a date

The first job of it is 🧅 Green Onions, start indoors, around March 1 – March 11 — counted back from a last spring freeze of April 26 – May 6 here.

Every spring date for your ZIP →

These are ranges across the whole county. The ZIP lookup above gives the dates from your own nearest station instead.

All 4 stations agreeAt least one station

Every one of the 4 NOAA stations serving this county counts May 6 – October 12 as growing season (159 days). Widening to any single station gives April 26 – October 20 (177 days).

Which zone you are in depends where you are

Avery County covers 2 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the county one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — fine for the 75% in zone 6b and wrong for the other 25%. Here is the actual split.

Zone	ZIP codes	Share
6b	6	75%
7a	2	25%

Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the county's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.

Your freeze dates

Last spring freeze April 26 – May 6

First fall freeze October 12 – October 20

Across the 4 NOAA stations serving this county. These are medians — half of years freeze later than the date shown — so treat the later end of each range as the cautious one.

The growing season runs 159–177 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 67.5–79.4 °F in June–August. Summer rain over the same months runs 15.0–18.3" across those 4 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. At the middle station that is covered, so watering in Avery County is for the gaps between storms rather than the whole season. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 78 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

Every ZIP code in Avery County

Zones are published per ZIP code, not per county, so this is the exact answer rather than the county's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.

ZIP code	USDA zone	Nearest NOAA station	Distance
28616	7a	Spruce Pine 2 NE, NC	11.8 km
28622	6b	Beech Mtn, NC	6.8 km
28646	6b	Grandfather Mtn, NC	3.0 km
28652	6b	Roan Mtn 3Sw, TN	12.8 km
28653	6b	Grandfather Mtn, NC	7.1 km
28657	6b	Spruce Pine 2 NE, NC	11.3 km
28662	6b	Grandfather Mtn, NC	9.9 km
28664	7a	Spruce Pine 2 NE, NC	12.2 km

ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.

When to start seeds in Avery County

Every date below is anchored on the last spring freeze at each station and reported as a range across all 4 of them, because no one station speaks for the county.

Crop	Job	When	Offset
🧅 Green Onions	Start indoors	March 1 – March 11	8 wk before
🌶️ Peppers	Start indoors	March 1 – March 11	8 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Start indoors	March 15 – March 25	6 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Start indoors	March 15 – March 25	6 wk before
🥬 Collards	Start indoors	March 15 – March 25	6 wk before
🥬 Kale	Start indoors	March 15 – March 25	6 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Start indoors	March 15 – March 25	6 wk before
🫛 Peas	Direct sow	March 15 – March 25	6 wk before
🥬 Spinach	Direct sow	March 15 – March 25	6 wk before
🍠 Sweet Potato	Start indoors	March 15 – March 25	6 wk before
🍅 Tomatoes	Start indoors	March 15 – March 25	6 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Start indoors	March 22 – April 1	5 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Start indoors	March 22 – April 1	5 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Start indoors	March 22 – April 1	5 wk before
🥬 Arugula	Direct sow	March 29 – April 8	4 wk before
🥬 Baby Salad Greens	Direct sow	March 29 – April 8	4 wk before
🥕 Beets	Direct sow	March 29 – April 8	4 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Direct sow	March 29 – April 8	4 wk before
🥬 Mustard Greens	Direct sow	March 29 – April 8	4 wk before
🌶️ Okra	Start indoors	March 29 – April 8	4 wk before
🌱 Radishes	Direct sow	March 29 – April 8	4 wk before
🥔 Turnips	Direct sow	March 29 – April 8	4 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Set out	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🥕 Carrots	Direct sow	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Direct sow	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Set out	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🥒 Cucumbers	Start indoors	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Set out	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Direct sow	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Set out	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Direct sow	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Set out	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Direct sow	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🎃 Pumpkins	Start indoors	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🎃 Summer Squash	Start indoors	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🎃 Winter Squash	Start indoors	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🥒 Zucchini	Start indoors	April 5 – April 15	3 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Direct sow	April 12 – April 22	2 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Set out	April 12 – April 22	2 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Set out	April 12 – April 22	2 wk before
🌿 Cilantro	Direct sow	April 12 – April 22	2 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Set out	April 12 – April 22	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Direct sow	April 12 – April 22	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Set out	April 12 – April 22	2 wk before
🌿 Dill	Direct sow	April 19 – April 29	1 wk before
🫘 Bush Beans	Direct sow	May 3 – May 13	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Set out	May 3 – May 13	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Direct sow	May 3 – May 13	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Set out	May 3 – May 13	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Direct sow	May 3 – May 13	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Set out	May 3 – May 13	1 wk after
🌽 Sweet Corn	Direct sow	May 3 – May 13	1 wk after
🍅 Tomatoes	Set out	May 3 – May 13	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Direct sow	May 3 – May 13	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Set out	May 3 – May 13	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Direct sow	May 3 – May 13	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Set out	May 3 – May 13	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Direct sow	May 10 – May 20	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Direct sow	May 10 – May 20	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Set out	May 10 – May 20	2 wk after
🌶️ Peppers	Set out	May 10 – May 20	2 wk after
🫘 Southern Peas	Direct sow	May 10 – May 20	2 wk after
🍠 Sweet Potato	Set out	May 10 – May 20	2 wk after

Offsets are published guidance; the dates they land on are computed from measured NOAA normals. The seed-starting tool does this for your own ZIP code and counts the days.

What survives the winter changes across Avery County

Zone 7a carries 58 of 74 perennial edibles; zone 6b carries 51. The best number is not always the warmest zone — the count peaks in the middle and falls both ways, because the warm end loses plants to insufficient winter chill and summer heat, not to cold.

Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service — a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.

Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic

Last spring freeze: Plan to May 23 to be careful. Median April 26 – May 6 across 4 stations; April 10 is the optimistic end.
First fall freeze: Plan to September 27 to be careful. Median October 12 – October 20 across 4 stations; November 2 is the optimistic end.

NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.

The 4 stations behind these numbers

All 4 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 28 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole county.

A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.

These are the stations this county's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest — not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.

Station	NOAA ID	Last spring freeze	First fall freeze	Season
Beech Mtn, NC	USC00310645	May 6	October 14	159 days
Grandfather Mtn, NC	USC00313565	May 5	October 13	160 days
Roan Mtn 3Sw, TN	USC00407770	April 30	October 12	165 days
Spruce Pine 2 NE, NC	USC00318221	April 26	October 20	177 days

These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.

Your own ZIP

Work out your own dates

This page describes a whole county. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.

Other places to compare

Avery County sits in North Carolina. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other county in it with a page here.

More of North Carolina

Counties with the same zones — 6b–7a

Matched on the exact zone set, not a dominant zone, so the winter answer on these pages really is the same one as here.

Gear

If you want to act on this

Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.

Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.
MulchFor the perennials nearest their cold limit in zone 6b, where an insulated crown is what decides whether they come back.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.

Sources

Where these numbers come from

Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.

County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code — and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this county: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.