Bucksport, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Bucksport, 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 Bucksport 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 Bucksport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bucksport — the short answer
Bucksport, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- Horry County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Horry County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- Horry County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Horry County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Bucksport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bucksport's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bucksport
Each reading below is measured for Bucksport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBucksport runs about 277 days between hard freezes (read from Horry County, the closest normal to Bucksport) — 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
MeasuredBucksport 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 Bucksport is in
Bucksport sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bucksport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Horry County.
What Grows in Bucksport
Every plant below cleared Bucksport's own zone 8b and its 277-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bucksport?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (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 Bucksport
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bucksport checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 81 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bucksport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bucksport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CARRIS R CRIBB SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PEE DEE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BUCKSPORT MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- COMMUNITY EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- SC WILDLIFE & MARINE RESOURCES DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- MONTGOMERY CONSTR CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- ANNANDALE PLANTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- OSPREY MARINA RCEVE CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- GRAND STRAND WATER & SEWER AUTHORITY SOCASTEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- GRAND STRAND WATER & SEWER AUTHORITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- TEE OFF DELI OF MYRTLE BEACHUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- HOR-871Nitrate · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bucksport'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 Bucksport.
Total Sites
240
within ~10 miles of Bucksport
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bucksport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bucksport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bucksport, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bucksport — PFAS (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (155 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bucksport
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 Bucksport average
Your land is one point inside Bucksport
Everything above resolves to Bucksport as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Horry 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 Bucksport Average
Bucksport Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bucksport
- ●One soil character for all of Bucksport
- ●Frost dates read at Bucksport's scale: Mar 2 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bucksport's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bucksport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bucksport, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bucksport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bucksport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bucksport average
How we know this about Bucksport
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 Horry 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 Bucksport
When does frost risk typically end in Bucksport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bucksport typically lands around Mar 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Bucksport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bucksport 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 277 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bucksport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bucksport sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 20, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bucksport?
The federal record around Bucksport is a meaningful one — 240 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (155), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Bucksport?
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 Bucksport's scale — its 8b band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bucksport'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 Bucksport’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bucksport's own scale — the 2,691 acres it covers and 240 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bucksport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 240 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bucksport, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bucksport's boundary and the 2,691 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bucksport's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bucksport checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bucksport has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Horry County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bucksport's 2,691 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Horry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Horry 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 Horry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bucksport's 2,691 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bucksport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,691 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Bucksport-wide figureread your own land →