Clio, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Clio, 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 Clio 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 Clio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clio — the short answer
Clio, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 548 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Marlboro County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Marlboro County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- Marlboro County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 548 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 Marlboro County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Clio's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clio's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clio
Each reading below is measured for Clio itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsClio runs about 261 days between hard freezes (read from Marlboro County, the closest normal to Clio) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredClio 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 Clio is in
Clio sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clio's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marlboro County.
What Grows in Clio
Every plant below cleared Clio's own zone 8a and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clio?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Clio
Survey cells within 31 miles of Clio checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 96 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Clio
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clio. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A L CALHOUN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- MLB- 1Nitrate · 450 ft
- BUDDY LANES GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- DAVID ENGLISH GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CLIO FARM EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- D P CLARKS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- POWERS SUPERETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JERRY NOLANS GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SOUTHEAST FARM EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COUNTRY CASH & CARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MLB- 2Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- PACIFIC MEDIUM DENSITY FIBREBOARD PRODUCTS INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clio'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 Clio.
Total Sites
189
within ~10 miles of Clio
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clio
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clio
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clio, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Clio — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (143 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Clio
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 Clio average
Your land is one point inside Clio
Everything above resolves to Clio as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 548 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Marlboro 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 Clio Average
Clio Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Clio
- ●One soil character for all of Clio
- ●Frost dates read at Clio's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clio's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clio
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clio, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clio averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clio average
How we know this about Clio
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 Marlboro 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 Clio
When does frost risk typically end in Clio?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clio typically lands around Mar 9, 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 Mar 30.
When is the first frost in Clio?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clio typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clio?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clio sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 11, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clio?
The federal record around Clio is a meaningful one — 189 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (143), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Clio?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clio's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clio'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 Clio’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Clio's own scale — the 548 acres it covers and 189 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clio's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 189 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clio, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clio's boundary and the 548 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clio's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Clio checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Clio has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Marlboro County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clio's 548 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marlboro County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marlboro 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 Marlboro County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clio's 548 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clio you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 548 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Clio-wide figureread your own land →
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