Chesterfield, 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 Chesterfield, 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 Chesterfield 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 Chesterfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chesterfield — the short answer
Chesterfield, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Chesterfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chesterfield's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chesterfield
Each reading below is measured for Chesterfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChesterfield runs about 245 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
MeasuredChesterfield 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 Chesterfield is in
Chesterfield sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chesterfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chesterfield County.
What Grows in Chesterfield
Every plant below cleared Chesterfield's own zone 8a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chesterfield?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Chesterfield
Survey cells within 31 miles of Chesterfield checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 67 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chesterfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chesterfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHESTERFIELD MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SC DOT CHESTERFIELD MAINTBrownfields · 1300 ft
- GRITS & GROCERIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CURTIS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DAVIS RIVERS & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CHESTERFIELD COUNTY JAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CHESTERFIELD LIBRARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TOM JONES GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- RHYNESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MARKETTE 29Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SANDHILL TELEPHONE COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- OAKLAND GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chesterfield'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 Chesterfield.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chesterfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chesterfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chesterfield, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 67 sites within ~10 miles of Chesterfield. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Chesterfield
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 Chesterfield average
Your land is one point inside Chesterfield
Everything above resolves to Chesterfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Chesterfield Average
Chesterfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Chesterfield
- ●One soil character for all of Chesterfield
- ●Frost dates read at Chesterfield's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chesterfield's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chesterfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chesterfield, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chesterfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chesterfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chesterfield average
How we know this about Chesterfield
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 Chesterfield’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 Chesterfield
When does frost risk typically end in Chesterfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chesterfield typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Chesterfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chesterfield typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chesterfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chesterfield sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 2, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chesterfield?
The federal record around Chesterfield is a meaningful one — 91 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Chesterfield?
From about Oct 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 Nov 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chesterfield's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chesterfield'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 Chesterfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chesterfield's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,611 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chesterfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chesterfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 16 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chesterfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chesterfield's boundary and the 2,611 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chesterfield's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Chesterfield 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 Chesterfield's 2,611 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chesterfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chesterfield 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 Chesterfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chesterfield's 2,611 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chesterfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,611 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Chesterfield-wide figureread your own land →
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