Bethune, 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 Bethune, 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 Bethune 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 Bethune — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bethune — the short answer
Bethune, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 705 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- Kershaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Kershaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- Kershaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 705 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 Kershaw County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Bethune's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bethune's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bethune
Each reading below is measured for Bethune itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBethune runs about 257 days between hard freezes (read from Kershaw County, the closest normal to Bethune) — 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
MeasuredBethune 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 Bethune is in
Bethune sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bethune's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kershaw County.
What Grows in Bethune
Every plant below cleared Bethune's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bethune?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Bethune
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bethune checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 79 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bethune
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bethune. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CSX TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SF&H INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- PANTRY 590Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MR G'S FOOD STORE 129Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CLYBURN BROS & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WINNERS CIRCLE MINI MARTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- AUDI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- RYDER TRUCK RENTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COLGATE-PALMOLIVEToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- BETHUNE SECTION SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VERATECHToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- BETHUNE NONWOVENS INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bethune'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 Bethune.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Bethune
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bethune
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bethune
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bethune, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bethune — Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (41 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bethune
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 Bethune average
Your land is one point inside Bethune
Everything above resolves to Bethune as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 705 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kershaw 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 Bethune Average
Bethune Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bethune
- ●One soil character for all of Bethune
- ●Frost dates read at Bethune's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bethune's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bethune
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bethune, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bethune averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bethune — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bethune average
How we know this about Bethune
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 Kershaw 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 Bethune
When does frost risk typically end in Bethune?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bethune typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Bethune?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bethune 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 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bethune?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bethune sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 12, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bethune?
The federal record around Bethune is a meaningful one — 57 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), 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 Bethune?
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 Bethune's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bethune'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 Bethune’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bethune's own scale — the 705 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bethune's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bethune, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bethune's boundary and the 705 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bethune's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bethune checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bethune has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kershaw County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bethune's 705 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kershaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kershaw 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 Kershaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bethune's 705 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bethune you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 705 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 Bethune-wide figureread your own land →
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