Cross Hill, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 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 Cross 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 Cross Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cross Hill — the short answer
Cross Hill, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- Laurens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- Laurens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- Laurens 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 Laurens County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Cross Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cross Hill's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cross Hill
Each reading below is measured for Cross Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCross Hill runs about 240 days between hard freezes (read from Laurens County, the closest normal to Cross 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
MeasuredCross Hill 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 Hill is in
Cross Hill sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cross Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Laurens County.
What Grows in Cross Hill
Every plant below cleared Cross Hill's own zone 8a and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cross Hill?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Cross Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cross Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GLADYS ADAIR SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BUCKS QUICK STOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SC DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION CROSS HILL SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- T ROYS LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LONGSHORE STORE AND STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- OM TAT SATUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LAKESIDE GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- DEBS QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- CANE CREEK CAMPGROUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- DELOACH GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- JOE KELLYS TROPHY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- LEES BAR B QUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cross 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 Cross Hill.
Total Sites
138
within ~10 miles of Cross Hill
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cross Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cross Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cross Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cross Hill — Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (96 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 Cross 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 Cross Hill average
Your land is one point inside Cross Hill
Everything above resolves to Cross Hill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Laurens 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 Cross Hill Average
Cross Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cross Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Cross Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Cross Hill's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cross Hill's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cross Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cross Hill, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cross Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cross Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cross Hill average
How we know this about Cross 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 Laurens 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 Cross Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Cross Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cross Hill typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Cross Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cross Hill typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cross Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cross Hill sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 1, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cross Hill?
The federal record around Cross Hill shows 138 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Cross Hill?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cross Hill's scale — its 8a band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cross 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 Cross Hill’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cross Hill's own scale — the 2,038 acres it covers and 138 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cross Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 138 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cross Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cross Hill's boundary and the 2,038 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cross Hill's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cross Hill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Laurens County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cross Hill's 2,038 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Laurens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Laurens 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 Laurens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cross Hill's 2,038 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cross 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 2,038 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Cross Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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