Carlisle, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Carlisle, 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 Carlisle 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 Carlisle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carlisle — the short answer
Carlisle, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 906 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 906 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Carlisle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carlisle's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carlisle
Each reading below is measured for Carlisle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarlisle runs about 238 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredCarlisle 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 Carlisle is in
Carlisle sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Carlisle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Union County.
What Grows in Carlisle
Every plant below cleared Carlisle's own zone 8a and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carlisle?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Carlisle
Survey cells within 31 miles of Carlisle checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 72 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Carlisle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carlisle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOULWARES EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CENTRAL TRANSPORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CRICKET 3806Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- JOHNNIES MARKET & MOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GREGORYS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CATAWBA TIMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CARLISLE AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- JUNCTION PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- DAIFUKU AMERICA CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- CARLISLE FINISHING CONE MILLSToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- CARLISLE FINISHING CONE MILLSBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- SAVAGE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carlisle'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 Carlisle.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Carlisle
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carlisle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carlisle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carlisle, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Carlisle — Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (27 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 Carlisle
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 Carlisle average
Your land is one point inside Carlisle
Everything above resolves to Carlisle as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 906 acres. 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 Carlisle Average
Carlisle Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Carlisle
- ●One soil character for all of Carlisle
- ●Frost dates read at Carlisle's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carlisle's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carlisle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carlisle, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carlisle averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carlisle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carlisle average
How we know this about Carlisle
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 Carlisle’s own record; 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 Carlisle
When does frost risk typically end in Carlisle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carlisle typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Carlisle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carlisle typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carlisle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carlisle sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 30, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carlisle?
The federal record around Carlisle is light — 38 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Carlisle?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carlisle's scale — its 8a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carlisle'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 Carlisle’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Carlisle's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 906 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carlisle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carlisle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 13 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carlisle, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carlisle's boundary and the 906 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carlisle's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Carlisle checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carlisle's 906 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Union County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Union 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 Union County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carlisle's 906 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carlisle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 906 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 Carlisle-wide figureread your own land →