Burton, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Burton, 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 Burton 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 Burton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Burton — the short answer
Burton, South Carolina: USDA zone 9a, about 317 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 5K 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 Burton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burton's 317-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burton
Each reading below is measured for Burton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBurton runs about 317 days between hard freezes (read from Beaufort County, the closest normal to Burton) — 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
MeasuredBurton 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 Burton is in
Burton sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Burton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beaufort County.
What Grows in Burton
Every plant below cleared Burton'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 Burton?
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 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 Burton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ATLANTIC SOFT DRINK CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- ROBERT SMALL MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PETSMART #3258Brownfields · 2200 ft
- HOME GOODS STORE# 1177Brownfields · 2200 ft
- TJ MAXX STORE# 1075Brownfields · 2300 ft
- OC WELCHBrownfields · 2300 ft
- HONDA CARS OF BEAUFORTBrownfields · 2300 ft
- STOKES MITSUBISHIBrownfields · 2300 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE PARRIS ISLANDBrownfields · 2400 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 1383Brownfields · 2400 ft
- SC DOT BEAUFORT MAINTBrownfields · 2400 ft
- BEAUFORT GLASS CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burton'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 Burton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Burton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Burton, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Burton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Burton
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 Burton average
Your land is one point inside Burton
Everything above resolves to Burton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Beaufort 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 Burton Average
Burton Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Burton
- ●One soil character for all of Burton
- ●Frost dates read at Burton's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burton's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burton, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burton average
How we know this about Burton
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 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 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 Burton
When does frost risk typically end in Burton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burton 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 Burton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burton 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 Burton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burton 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 Burton?
The federal record around Burton runs heavier than most — 311 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (174), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Burton?
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 Burton's scale — its 9a band and its 317-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burton'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 Burton’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Burton's own scale — the 5,283 acres it covers and 311 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 311 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burton's boundary and the 5,283 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 Burton's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Burton 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 Burton's 5,283 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 Burton's 5,283 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,283 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 Burton-wide figureread your own land →