Cokesbury, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cokesbury, 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 Cokesbury 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 Cokesbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cokesbury — the short answer
Cokesbury, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 380 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- Greenwood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Greenwood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- Greenwood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 380 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 Greenwood County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Cokesbury's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cokesbury's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cokesbury
Each reading below is measured for Cokesbury itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCokesbury runs about 254 days between hard freezes (read from Greenwood County, the closest normal to Cokesbury) — 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
MeasuredCokesbury 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 Cokesbury is in
Cokesbury sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cokesbury's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greenwood County.
What Grows in Cokesbury
Every plant below cleared Cokesbury's own zone 8a and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cokesbury?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Cokesbury
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cokesbury. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COKESBURY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- WARDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CROWN CASTING INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- GFP-HODGESBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- PARK SEED COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CATERPILLAR INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- CATERPILLAR INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- HARVLEY'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- COLGATE PALMOLIVE COToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- COLGATE PALMOLIVE COMPANYBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- COLGATE PALMOLIVE COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- GOODRICH CORPORATION TURBINE COMPONENT SERVICEToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cokesbury'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 Cokesbury.
Total Sites
396
within ~10 miles of Cokesbury
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cokesbury
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cokesbury
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cokesbury, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cokesbury — Toxics Release Inventory (35 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (256 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 Cokesbury
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 Cokesbury average
Your land is one point inside Cokesbury
Everything above resolves to Cokesbury as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 380 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Greenwood 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 Cokesbury Average
Cokesbury Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cokesbury
- ●One soil character for all of Cokesbury
- ●Frost dates read at Cokesbury's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cokesbury's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cokesbury
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cokesbury, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cokesbury averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cokesbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cokesbury average
How we know this about Cokesbury
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 Greenwood 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 Cokesbury
When does frost risk typically end in Cokesbury?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cokesbury typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Cokesbury?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cokesbury typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cokesbury?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cokesbury sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 7, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cokesbury?
The federal record around Cokesbury is a meaningful one — 396 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (256), 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 Cokesbury?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cokesbury's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cokesbury'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 Cokesbury’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cokesbury's own scale — the 380 acres it covers and 396 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cokesbury's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 396 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cokesbury, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cokesbury's boundary and the 380 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cokesbury's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cokesbury has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Greenwood County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cokesbury's 380 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greenwood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greenwood 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 Greenwood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cokesbury's 380 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cokesbury you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 380 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 Cokesbury-wide figureread your own land →
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