Arcadia, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Arcadia, 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 Arcadia 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 Arcadia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Arcadia — the short answer
Arcadia, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Arcadia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arcadia's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arcadia
Each reading below is measured for Arcadia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArcadia runs about 255 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
MeasuredArcadia 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 Arcadia is in
Arcadia sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arcadia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Spartanburg County.
What Grows in Arcadia
Every plant below cleared Arcadia's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arcadia?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Arcadia
Survey cells within 31 miles of Arcadia checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 55 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Arcadia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arcadia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAYFAIR MILLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SPARTANBURG ABATTOIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MAYFAIR MILLS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR 10891Brownfields · 1800 ft
- SC523Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CRICKET 3832Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 221 HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GOODYEAR SPARTANBURGToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- KUSTERS TEXTILE MACHINERYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- HOKE INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FAST FUEL 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arcadia'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 Arcadia.
Total Sites
1,295
within ~10 miles of Arcadia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arcadia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arcadia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arcadia, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 133 sites within ~10 miles of Arcadia. 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 Arcadia
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 Arcadia average
Your land is one point inside Arcadia
Everything above resolves to Arcadia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Arcadia Average
Arcadia Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Arcadia
- ●One soil character for all of Arcadia
- ●Frost dates read at Arcadia's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arcadia's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arcadia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arcadia, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arcadia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arcadia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arcadia average
How we know this about Arcadia
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 Arcadia’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 Arcadia
When does frost risk typically end in Arcadia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arcadia typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Arcadia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arcadia typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arcadia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arcadia sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 8, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arcadia?
The federal record around Arcadia is a meaningful one — 1,295 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (732), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Arcadia?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arcadia's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arcadia'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 Arcadia’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Arcadia's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,254 acres it covers and 1,295 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arcadia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arcadia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 22 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,295 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arcadia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arcadia's boundary and the 1,254 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arcadia's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Arcadia 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 Arcadia's 1,254 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Spartanburg County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Spartanburg County
- The growing challenges every South Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Spartanburg County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arcadia's 1,254 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arcadia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,254 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Arcadia-wide figureread your own land →