Ben Avon, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Ben Avon, 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 Ben Avon 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 Ben Avon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ben Avon — the short answer
Ben Avon, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- 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 Ben Avon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ben Avon's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ben Avon
Each reading below is measured for Ben Avon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBen Avon runs about 246 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
MeasuredBen Avon 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 Ben Avon is in
Ben Avon sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ben Avon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Spartanburg County.
What Grows in Ben Avon
Every plant below cleared Ben Avon's own zone 8a and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ben Avon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 Ben Avon
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ben Avon checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 60 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ben Avon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ben Avon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ENERGY MARKET 4507Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SPARTANBURG COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CAMPBELLS BODY SHOP INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1800 ft
- W N KIRKLAND INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- EAGLE TRANSPORT CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- U.S. VENTURE, INC. SPARTANBURG TERMINAL IIBrownfields · 2500 ft
- AMERICAN PROPERTY INVESTOR IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- LIBERTY REED COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SPARTANBURG PETROLEUM CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DUKE ENERGY CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PLANTATION PIPE LINE SPARTANBURGBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PINE STREET CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ben Avon'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 Ben Avon.
Total Sites
1,057
within ~10 miles of Ben Avon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ben Avon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ben Avon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ben Avon, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 95 sites within ~10 miles of Ben Avon. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ben Avon
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 Ben Avon average
Your land is one point inside Ben Avon
Everything above resolves to Ben Avon 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 Ben Avon Average
Ben Avon Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ben Avon
- ●One soil character for all of Ben Avon
- ●Frost dates read at Ben Avon's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ben Avon's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ben Avon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ben Avon, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ben Avon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ben Avon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ben Avon average
How we know this about Ben Avon
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 Ben Avon’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 Ben Avon
When does frost risk typically end in Ben Avon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ben Avon typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Ben Avon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ben Avon typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ben Avon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ben Avon sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 3, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ben Avon?
The federal record around Ben Avon is a meaningful one — 1,057 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (631), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ben Avon?
From about Oct 18 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 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 Nov 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ben Avon's scale — its 8a band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ben Avon'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 Ben Avon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ben Avon's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,069 acres it covers and 1,057 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ben Avon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ben Avon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 17 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,057 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ben Avon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ben Avon's boundary and the 1,069 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ben Avon's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ben Avon 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 Ben Avon's 1,069 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 Ben Avon's 1,069 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ben Avon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,069 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ben Avon-wide figureread your own land →