Clarendon County, in South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Clarendon County lies within the Midlands (Columbia) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Clarendon County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Clarendon County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Clarendon County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Clarendon County — the short answer
Clarendon County, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 389K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 389K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 8b is Clarendon County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clarendon County's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Clarendon County
Across a year, Clarendon County accumulates about 5,383 growing degree days above 50°F, about 235 more than the middle South Carolina county — ahead of 31 of South Carolina’s 46 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 1,193 hours below 45°F, 169 fewer than the South Carolina middle of 1,362. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Clarendon County
Across Clarendon County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Lynchburg, Fuquay, and Dothan are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.7, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A/D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
25%
Hydric soils
38%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Clarendon County
The USDA soil survey maps 26% of Clarendon County as well drained — but another 62% drains differently: 17% very poorly drained, 16% somewhat poorly drained.
Lynchburg is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Fuquay (13%) and Dothan (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Clarendon County
Each reading below is measured for Clarendon County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Clarendon County are well drained, in hydrologic group A/D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Clarendon County runs about pH 4.7, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 38% of Clarendon County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredClarendon County runs about 270 days between hard freezes — 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
The kind of country Clarendon County is in
Clarendon County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (64%) and Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain (36%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Clarendon County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Clarendon County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 270-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile.
Is it too late to plant in Clarendon County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Clarendon County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Clarendon County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 131 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Clarendon County
USGS estimates 106,239 lb of Glyphosate on Clarendon County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (51,666 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (41,286 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Clarendon County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Clarendon County — 240 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Clarendon County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Clarendon County
Closest first, across Clarendon County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCOTTS FAST BREAKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LAKE ROAD MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CORNER PANTRY 148Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MANNING TOWN OF (1410002)PFAS · 1.2 mi
- SANTEE EXPRESS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- THRIFTY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CLARENDON MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MCLEOD HEALTH CLARENDONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SPIGNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PHAT TAIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CLA- 3Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- TYSON GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clarendon County'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 Clarendon County.
Total Sites
240
across Clarendon County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Clarendon County
Severity Distribution
across Clarendon County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clarendon County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 197 sites across Clarendon County. 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 Clarendon County
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 Clarendon County average
Your land is one point inside Clarendon County
Everything above resolves to Clarendon County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 389K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Clarendon County Average
Clarendon County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Clarendon County
- ●One soil character for all of Clarendon County
- ●Frost dates read at Clarendon County's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clarendon County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Clarendon County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clarendon County, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clarendon County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clarendon County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clarendon County average
How we know this about Clarendon County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Clarendon County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Clarendon County
When does frost risk typically end in Clarendon County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clarendon County typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
How long is the growing season in Clarendon County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clarendon County sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 14, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clarendon County?
The federal record around Clarendon County is a meaningful one — 240 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (197), 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.
Everything above is measured at Clarendon County's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clarendon County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads South Carolina's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Clarendon County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Clarendon County's own scale — its own ~270-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 240 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clarendon County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clarendon County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~270-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Clarendon CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 240 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Clarendon County's boundary and the 388,613 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Clarendon County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Clarendon County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Clarendon County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every South Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Carolina
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Clarendon County — the ~270 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clarendon County's 388,613 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 240 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Clarendon Countyread your own land →