Cateechee, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Cateechee, 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 Cateechee 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 Cateechee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cateechee — the short answer
Cateechee, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 327 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- Pickens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- Pickens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- Pickens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 327 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 Pickens County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Cateechee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cateechee's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cateechee
Each reading below is measured for Cateechee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCateechee runs about 248 days between hard freezes (read from Pickens County, the closest normal to Cateechee) — 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
MeasuredCateechee 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 Cateechee is in
Cateechee sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cateechee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pickens County.
What Grows in Cateechee
Every plant below cleared Cateechee's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cateechee?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Cateechee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cateechee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VALLEY SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHANDLER SHELL STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SHAW INDUSTRIES GROUP INC PLANT 8TToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- SHAW INDUSTRIES GROUP INC PLANT 8TBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- A T MANN GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HASTY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- NORRIS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- E MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SPINX 401Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- EASLEY CENTRAL WATER DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SHAW INDUSTRIES GROUP INC PLANT 8TUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BASF CORPORATE/CLEMSON SITEBrownfields · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cateechee'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 Cateechee.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cateechee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cateechee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cateechee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cateechee — PFAS (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (31 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cateechee
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 Cateechee average
Your land is one point inside Cateechee
Everything above resolves to Cateechee as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 327 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pickens 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 Cateechee Average
Cateechee Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cateechee
- ●One soil character for all of Cateechee
- ●Frost dates read at Cateechee's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cateechee's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cateechee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cateechee, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cateechee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cateechee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cateechee average
How we know this about Cateechee
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 Pickens 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 Cateechee
When does frost risk typically end in Cateechee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cateechee typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Cateechee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cateechee typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cateechee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cateechee sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 4, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cateechee?
The federal record around Cateechee is a meaningful one — 419 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (285), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Cateechee?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cateechee's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cateechee'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 Cateechee’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cateechee's own scale — the 327 acres it covers and 419 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cateechee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 419 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cateechee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cateechee's boundary and the 327 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cateechee's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cateechee has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pickens County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cateechee's 327 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pickens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pickens 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 Pickens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cateechee's 327 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cateechee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 327 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Cateechee-wide figureread your own land →