Batesburg-Leesville, 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 Batesburg-Leesville, 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 Batesburg-Leesville 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 Batesburg-Leesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Batesburg-Leesville — the short answer
Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- Lexington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Lexington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- Lexington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Lexington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Batesburg-Leesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Batesburg-Leesville's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Batesburg-Leesville
Each reading below is measured for Batesburg-Leesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBatesburg-Leesville runs about 265 days between hard freezes (read from Lexington County, the closest normal to Batesburg-Leesville) — 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
MeasuredBatesburg-Leesville 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 Batesburg-Leesville is in
Batesburg-Leesville sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Batesburg-Leesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lexington County.
What Grows in Batesburg-Leesville
Every plant below cleared Batesburg-Leesville's own zone 8b and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Batesburg-Leesville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Batesburg-Leesville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Batesburg-Leesville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 116 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Batesburg-Leesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Batesburg-Leesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #4420Brownfields · 400 ft
- PALMETTO PROPANE FUELS AND ICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FRANKS AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CORNER PANTRY 147Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CORNER CARD STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- S&S AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- SCHUMPERT OIL CO BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WIZS SOUTHERN CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 3578Brownfields · 1700 ft
- LEESVILLE SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LESS HITE PONTIAC GMC INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1800 ft
- SCARNG BATESBURG READINESS CENTERBrownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Batesburg-Leesville'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 Batesburg-Leesville.
Total Sites
170
within ~10 miles of Batesburg-Leesville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Batesburg-Leesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Batesburg-Leesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Batesburg-Leesville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 118 sites within ~10 miles of Batesburg-Leesville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Batesburg-Leesville
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 Batesburg-Leesville average
Your land is one point inside Batesburg-Leesville
Everything above resolves to Batesburg-Leesville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lexington County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Batesburg-Leesville Average
Batesburg-Leesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Batesburg-Leesville
- ●One soil character for all of Batesburg-Leesville
- ●Frost dates read at Batesburg-Leesville's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Batesburg-Leesville's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Batesburg-Leesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Batesburg-Leesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Batesburg-Leesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Batesburg-Leesville average
How we know this about Batesburg-Leesville
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 Lexington 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 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 Batesburg-Leesville
When does frost risk typically end in Batesburg-Leesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Batesburg-Leesville typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Batesburg-Leesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Batesburg-Leesville typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Batesburg-Leesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Batesburg-Leesville sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 12, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Batesburg-Leesville?
The federal record around Batesburg-Leesville is a meaningful one — 170 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (118), the nearest Brownfields 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 Batesburg-Leesville?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Batesburg-Leesville's scale — its 8b band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Batesburg-Leesville'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 Batesburg-Leesville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Batesburg-Leesville's own scale — the 5,246 acres it covers and 170 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Batesburg-Leesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 170 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Batesburg-Leesville, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Batesburg-Leesville's boundary and the 5,246 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Batesburg-Leesville's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Batesburg-Leesville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Batesburg-Leesville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lexington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Batesburg-Leesville's 5,246 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lexington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lexington 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 Lexington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Batesburg-Leesville's 5,246 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Batesburg-Leesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,246 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Batesburg-Leesville-wide figureread your own land →
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