Cross Anchor, 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.
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 Cross Anchor, 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 Cross Anchor 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 Cross Anchor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cross Anchor — the short answer
Cross Anchor, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 495 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 495 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 Cross Anchor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cross Anchor's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cross Anchor
Each reading below is measured for Cross Anchor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCross Anchor runs about 236 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
MeasuredCross Anchor 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 Cross Anchor is in
Cross Anchor sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cross Anchor's own centroid rather than borrowed from Spartanburg County.
What Grows in Cross Anchor
Every plant below cleared Cross Anchor's own zone 8a and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cross Anchor?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Cross Anchor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cross Anchor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BREWINGTONS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- IRBY EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CRICKET 3828Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ONE STOP GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WOODRUFF FEDERALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- REPUBLIC SERVICES UNION COUNTY REGIONAL LANDFILLToxics Release Inventory · 3.0 mi
- MUSGROVE MILL GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- CRICKET 3839Underground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- INTERSTATE EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- W H WILBURN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- ANDERSON HARDWOOD FLOORSBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- ANDERSON HARDWOOD FLOORSToxics Release Inventory · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cross Anchor'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 Cross Anchor.
Total Sites
67
within ~10 miles of Cross Anchor
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cross Anchor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cross Anchor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cross Anchor, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cross Anchor — Superfund (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (7 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cross Anchor
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 Cross Anchor average
Your land is one point inside Cross Anchor
Everything above resolves to Cross Anchor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 495 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 Cross Anchor Average
Cross Anchor Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cross Anchor
- ●One soil character for all of Cross Anchor
- ●Frost dates read at Cross Anchor's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cross Anchor's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cross Anchor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cross Anchor, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cross Anchor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cross Anchor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cross Anchor average
How we know this about Cross Anchor
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 Cross Anchor’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 Cross Anchor
When does frost risk typically end in Cross Anchor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cross Anchor typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Cross Anchor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cross Anchor typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cross Anchor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cross Anchor sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 29, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cross Anchor?
The federal record around Cross Anchor is a meaningful one — 67 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), 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 Cross Anchor?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cross Anchor's scale — its 8a band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cross Anchor'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 Cross Anchor’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cross Anchor's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 495 acres it covers and 67 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cross Anchor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cross Anchor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 12 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 67 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cross Anchor, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cross Anchor's boundary and the 495 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cross Anchor's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cross Anchor's 495 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Spartanburg County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Spartanburg 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 Spartanburg County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cross Anchor's 495 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cross Anchor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 495 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 Cross Anchor-wide figureread your own land →