Daviston, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Daviston, 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 Daviston 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 Daviston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Daviston — the short answer
Daviston, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 825 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 825 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 Marion County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Daviston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Daviston's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Daviston
Each reading below is measured for Daviston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDaviston runs about 273 days between hard freezes (read from Marion County, the closest normal to Daviston) — 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
MeasuredDaviston sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Daviston is in
Daviston sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Daviston's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Marion County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Daviston
Every plant below cleared Daviston's own zone 8b and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Daviston?
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 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 Dec 1 — 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 Daviston
Survey cells within 31 miles of Daviston checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 89 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Daviston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Daviston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- POSTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ALTMANS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- G H WILLIAMS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- W W WILSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- JESSIE EADDYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BRITTONS NECK GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- VALUE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- W J'S VARIETY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- BRITTONS NECK PARK & BLOWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- HOT SPOT 2021Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- MN- 78Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- MN- 77Nitrate · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Daviston'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 Daviston.
Total Sites
77
within ~10 miles of Daviston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Daviston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Daviston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Daviston, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Daviston. 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 Daviston
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 Daviston average
Your land is one point inside Daviston
Everything above resolves to Daviston as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 825 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Marion 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 Daviston Average
Daviston Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Daviston
- ●One soil character for all of Daviston
- ●Frost dates read at Daviston's scale: Mar 3 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Daviston's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Daviston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Daviston, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Daviston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Daviston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Daviston average
How we know this about Daviston
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 Marion 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 Daviston
When does frost risk typically end in Daviston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Daviston 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.
When is the first frost in Daviston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Daviston typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Daviston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Daviston sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 17, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Daviston?
The federal record around Daviston is a meaningful one — 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Daviston?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Daviston's scale — its 8b band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Daviston'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 Daviston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Daviston's own scale — the 825 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Daviston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Daviston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Daviston's boundary and the 825 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Daviston sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Daviston checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Daviston has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Marion County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Daviston's 825 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Daviston's 825 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Daviston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 825 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Daviston-wide figureread your own land →
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