Barnwell, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Barnwell, 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 Barnwell 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 Barnwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Barnwell — the short answer
Barnwell, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 275 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- Barnwell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Barnwell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~275
- Barnwell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Barnwell County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Barnwell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barnwell's 275-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barnwell
Each reading below is measured for Barnwell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBarnwell runs about 275 days between hard freezes (read from Barnwell County, the closest normal to Barnwell) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBarnwell sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Barnwell is in
Barnwell sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Barnwell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barnwell County.
What Grows in Barnwell
Every plant below cleared Barnwell's own zone 8b and its 275-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barnwell?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Barnwell
Survey cells within 31 miles of Barnwell checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 159 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Barnwell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barnwell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOUTHERN BELL BRWLSCBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BARNWELL CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BARNWELL PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 7508Brownfields · 1000 ft
- BARNWELL COUNTY PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BW- 22Nitrate · 1200 ft
- BW- 39Nitrate · 1400 ft
- JIM BO'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BESSINGERS GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CHINA CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- LUCILLE PARSONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SPORTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barnwell'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 Barnwell.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barnwell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barnwell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barnwell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Barnwell — Superfund (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (10 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Barnwell
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 Barnwell average
Your land is one point inside Barnwell
Everything above resolves to Barnwell as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Barnwell County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 city 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 Barnwell Average
Barnwell Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Barnwell
- ●One soil character for all of Barnwell
- ●Frost dates read at Barnwell's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barnwell's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barnwell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barnwell, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barnwell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barnwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barnwell average
How we know this about Barnwell
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Barnwell County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Barnwell
When does frost risk typically end in Barnwell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barnwell typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Barnwell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barnwell typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 275 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barnwell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barnwell sees about 275 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 14, about 240 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barnwell?
The federal record around Barnwell is a meaningful one — 143 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), 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 Barnwell?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barnwell's scale — its 8b band and its 275-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barnwell'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 Barnwell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Barnwell's own scale — the 5,019 acres it covers and 143 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barnwell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 143 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barnwell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barnwell's boundary and the 5,019 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~275-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Barnwell's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Barnwell checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Barnwell has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Barnwell County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Barnwell's 5,019 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barnwell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barnwell 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 Barnwell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barnwell's 5,019 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barnwell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,019 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 Barnwell-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Carolina
Wider growing context
What grows across South CarolinaBarnwell sits outside our named growing regions, so South Carolina as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides