Beaufort, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Beaufort, 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 Beaufort 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 Beaufort — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beaufort — the short answer
Beaufort, South Carolina: USDA zone 9a, about 317 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- Beaufort County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Beaufort County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~317
- Beaufort County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 16K 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 Beaufort County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Beaufort's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beaufort's 317-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beaufort
Each reading below is measured for Beaufort itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBeaufort runs about 317 days between hard freezes (read from Beaufort County, the closest normal to Beaufort) — 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
MeasuredBeaufort sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Beaufort is in
Beaufort sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beaufort's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beaufort County.
What Grows in Beaufort
Every plant below cleared Beaufort's own zone 9a and its 317-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beaufort?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Beaufort
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beaufort. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BFT-131Nitrate · 2200 ft
- SCARNG BEAUFORT READINESS CENTERBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- US MARINE CORPS MCAS BEAUFORT STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- US MARINE CORPS MCAS BEAUFORT STATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SOUTHERN GAS PARTNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PARKERS 59Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BFT-132Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- BFT-121Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- UNITED TEL CO OF THE CAROLINASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ATHENA CORPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- ATHENA CORPToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- DR TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beaufort'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 Beaufort.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beaufort
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beaufort
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beaufort, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Beaufort. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Beaufort
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 Beaufort average
Your land is one point inside Beaufort
Everything above resolves to Beaufort as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 16K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Beaufort 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 Beaufort Average
Beaufort Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Beaufort
- ●One soil character for all of Beaufort
- ●Frost dates read at Beaufort's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beaufort's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beaufort
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beaufort, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beaufort averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beaufort — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beaufort average
How we know this about Beaufort
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 Beaufort 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 Beaufort
When does frost risk typically end in Beaufort?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beaufort typically lands around Feb 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 Feb 24.
When is the first frost in Beaufort?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beaufort typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 317 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beaufort?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beaufort sees about 317 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Dec 3, about 282 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beaufort?
The federal record around Beaufort runs heavier than most — 291 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (169), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Beaufort?
From about Nov 17 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 Dec 17 (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 Dec 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Beaufort's scale — its 9a band and its 317-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beaufort'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 Beaufort’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Beaufort's own scale — the 15,686 acres it covers and 291 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beaufort's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 291 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beaufort, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beaufort's boundary and the 15,686 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~317-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beaufort's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Beaufort has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Beaufort County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beaufort's 15,686 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beaufort County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beaufort 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 Beaufort County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beaufort's 15,686 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beaufort you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,686 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Beaufort-wide figureread your own land →