Bonneau Beach, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Bonneau Beach, 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 Bonneau Beach 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 Bonneau Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bonneau Beach — the short answer
Bonneau Beach, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 22
- Berkeley County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Berkeley County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~285
- Berkeley County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Berkeley County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Bonneau Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bonneau Beach's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bonneau Beach
Each reading below is measured for Bonneau Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBonneau Beach runs about 285 days between hard freezes (read from Berkeley County, the closest normal to Bonneau Beach) — 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
MeasuredBonneau Beach 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 Bonneau Beach is in
Bonneau Beach sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bonneau Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Berkeley County.
What Grows in Bonneau Beach
Every plant below cleared Bonneau Beach's own zone 8b and its 285-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bonneau Beach?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — 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 Bonneau Beach
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bonneau Beach checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 136 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bonneau Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bonneau Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DENNIS WILDLIFE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- WILSONS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BONN GROCERY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- YOUNGS 3645Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BONNEAU DENTAL CENTERBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- CUMBEES TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- FORMER B&D SELF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- CIRCLE K 2723362Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- RALPH THOMAS PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- LOW COUNTRY SPORTSMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- BULLARD PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- SHORT STAY US NAVYBrownfields · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bonneau Beach'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 Bonneau Beach.
Total Sites
227
within ~10 miles of Bonneau Beach
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bonneau Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bonneau Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bonneau Beach, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 140 sites within ~10 miles of Bonneau Beach. 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 Bonneau Beach
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 Bonneau Beach average
Your land is one point inside Bonneau Beach
Everything above resolves to Bonneau Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Berkeley 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 Bonneau Beach Average
Bonneau Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bonneau Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Bonneau Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Bonneau Beach's scale: Feb 22 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bonneau Beach's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bonneau Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bonneau Beach, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bonneau Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bonneau Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bonneau Beach average
How we know this about Bonneau Beach
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 Berkeley 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 Bonneau Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Bonneau Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bonneau Beach typically lands around Feb 22, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Bonneau Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bonneau Beach typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 285 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bonneau Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bonneau Beach sees about 285 frost-free days — roughly Feb 22 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 15 to Nov 20, about 250 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bonneau Beach?
The federal record around Bonneau Beach is a meaningful one — 227 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (140), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 Bonneau Beach?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bonneau Beach's scale — its 8b band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bonneau Beach'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 Bonneau Beach’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bonneau Beach's own scale — the 1,501 acres it covers and 227 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bonneau Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 227 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bonneau Beach, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bonneau Beach's boundary and the 1,501 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~285-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bonneau Beach's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bonneau Beach checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bonneau Beach has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Berkeley County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bonneau Beach's 1,501 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berkeley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berkeley 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 Berkeley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bonneau Beach's 1,501 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bonneau Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,501 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 Bonneau Beach-wide figureread your own land →