Clarks Hill, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Clarks Hill, 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 Clarks Hill 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 Clarks Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clarks Hill — the short answer
Clarks Hill, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- McCormick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- McCormick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- McCormick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 McCormick County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Clarks Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clarks Hill's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clarks Hill
Each reading below is measured for Clarks Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsClarks Hill runs about 258 days between hard freezes (read from McCormick County, the closest normal to Clarks Hill) — 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
MeasuredClarks Hill sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Clarks Hill is in
Clarks Hill sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clarks Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from McCormick County.
What Grows in Clarks Hill
Every plant below cleared Clarks Hill's own zone 8b and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clarks Hill?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Clarks Hill
Survey cells within 31 miles of Clarks Hill checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 117 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Clarks Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clarks Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 88 MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CLARKS HILL R SC1170Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CLARKS HILL CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- A&E CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- RUSTYS PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- USACE J STROM THURMOND POWER PLANTBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- J STROM THURMOND LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TRADEWINDS MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- The Dixie Mountain Serpentine DepMining · 4.1 mi
- THURMOND PROJECT AIRSTRIP #1Brownfields · 4.3 mi
- W MCDANIEL & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- MODOC SPORTSMAN CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clarks Hill'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 Clarks Hill.
Total Sites
116
within ~10 miles of Clarks Hill
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clarks Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clarks Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Clarks Hill
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 Clarks Hill average
Your land is one point inside Clarks Hill
Everything above resolves to Clarks Hill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from McCormick 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 Clarks Hill Average
Clarks Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Clarks Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Clarks Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Clarks Hill's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clarks Hill's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clarks Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clarks Hill, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clarks Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clarks Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clarks Hill average
How we know this about Clarks Hill
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 McCormick 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 Clarks Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Clarks Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clarks Hill typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Clarks Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clarks Hill typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clarks Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clarks Hill sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 10, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clarks Hill?
The federal record around Clarks Hill shows 116 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Clarks Hill?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clarks Hill's scale — its 8b band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clarks Hill'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 Clarks Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Clarks Hill's own scale — the 2,045 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clarks Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clarks Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clarks Hill's boundary and the 2,045 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clarks Hill's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Clarks Hill checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Clarks Hill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom McCormick County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clarks Hill's 2,045 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McCormick County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McCormick 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 McCormick County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clarks Hill's 2,045 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clarks Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,045 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Clarks Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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