Dale, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dale, 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 Dale 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 Dale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dale — the short answer
Dale, South Carolina: USDA zone 9a, about 317 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- Beaufort County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Beaufort County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~317
- Beaufort 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 Beaufort County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Dale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dale's 317-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dale
Each reading below is measured for Dale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDale runs about 317 days between hard freezes (read from Beaufort County, the closest normal to Dale) — 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
MeasuredDale sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Dale is in
Dale sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dale's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Beaufort County is mostly Southern Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Dale
Every plant below cleared Dale's own zone 9a and its 317-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dale?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Dale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DAVIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ALBANY GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BFT-1777Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- ARRMAZ SPECIALTY CHEMICALSToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- COASTAL DEMOLITION AND CONSTRUCTION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MARVINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- DRALLE FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MAUDES COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- LOBECO PRODUCTS INC.Superfund · 2.5 mi
- BFT-2147Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- MCLEOD FARMING COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- SEABROOK STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dale'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 Dale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dale, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Dale. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Dale
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 Dale average
Your land is one point inside Dale
Everything above resolves to Dale as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Beaufort 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 Dale Average
Dale Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Dale
- ●One soil character for all of Dale
- ●Frost dates read at Dale's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dale's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dale, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dale average
How we know this about Dale
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 Beaufort 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 Dale
When does frost risk typically end in Dale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dale typically lands around Feb 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 Feb 24.
When is the first frost in Dale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dale typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 317 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dale sees about 317 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Dec 3, about 282 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dale?
The federal record around Dale runs heavier than most — 201 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (122), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dale?
From about Nov 17 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 Dec 17 (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 Dec 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dale's scale — its 9a band and its 317-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dale'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 Dale’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Dale's own scale — the 1,518 acres it covers and 201 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 201 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dale's boundary and the 1,518 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~317-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dale sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Dale has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Beaufort County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dale's 1,518 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beaufort County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beaufort 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 Beaufort County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dale's 1,518 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,518 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Dale-wide figureread your own land →