Camden, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Camden, 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 Camden 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 Camden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Camden — the short answer
Camden, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 7K 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 Camden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Camden's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Camden
Each reading below is measured for Camden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCamden runs about 257 days between hard freezes (read from Kershaw County, the closest normal to Camden) — 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
MeasuredCamden 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 Camden is in
Camden sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Camden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kershaw County.
What Grows in Camden
Every plant below cleared Camden'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 Camden?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Camden
Survey cells within 31 miles of Camden checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 86 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Camden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Camden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROBINSONS HARDWARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CSX TRANSPORTATION, INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CSX TRANSPORTATION INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LAKESIDE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GATE PETROLEUM 314Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHERN BELL CMDNSCPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- AMOCO FOOD SHOP 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHERN BELL CMDNSCMAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- JOHNNIES AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KERSHAW COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KAMSCHATKA PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FAMILY ORTHODONTICS CAMDENBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Camden'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 Camden.
Total Sites
218
within ~10 miles of Camden
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Camden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Camden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Camden, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Camden — Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (137 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 Camden
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 Camden average
Your land is one point inside Camden
Everything above resolves to Camden as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kershaw County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Camden Average
Camden Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Camden
- ●One soil character for all of Camden
- ●Frost dates read at Camden's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Camden's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Camden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Camden, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Camden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Camden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Camden average
How we know this about Camden
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Camden
When does frost risk typically end in Camden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Camden 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 Camden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Camden 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 Camden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Camden 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 Camden?
The federal record around Camden is a meaningful one — 218 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (137), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Camden?
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 Camden's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Camden'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 Camden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Camden's own scale — the 7,108 acres it covers and 218 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Camden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 218 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Camden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Camden's boundary and the 7,108 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 Camden's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Camden checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Camden 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 Camden's 7,108 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 Camden's 7,108 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Camden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,108 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Camden-wide figureread your own land →
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