Donalds, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Donalds, 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 Donalds 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 Donalds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Donalds — the short answer
Donalds, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 532 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- Abbeville County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- Abbeville County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- Abbeville County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 532 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 Abbeville County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Donalds's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Donalds's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Donalds
Each reading below is measured for Donalds itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDonalds runs about 248 days between hard freezes (read from Abbeville County, the closest normal to Donalds) — 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
MeasuredDonalds 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 Donalds is in
Donalds sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Donalds's own centroid rather than borrowed from Abbeville County.
What Grows in Donalds
Every plant below cleared Donalds's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Donalds?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Donalds
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Donalds. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- V GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- C R STONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DONALDS SHELL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HANCOCKS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DONALDS CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TERRYS CLEAN UPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DONALDS-DUE WEST W&SA (SC0120001)PFAS · 0.8 mi
- UnknownMining · 1.5 mi
- Saluda MineMining · 1.5 mi
- DONALDS SECTION SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- SHELL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- O'DELLS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Donalds'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 Donalds.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of Donalds
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Donalds
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Donalds
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Donalds, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Donalds — PFAS (5 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Donalds
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 Donalds average
Your land is one point inside Donalds
Everything above resolves to Donalds as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 532 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Abbeville 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 Donalds Average
Donalds Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Donalds
- ●One soil character for all of Donalds
- ●Frost dates read at Donalds's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Donalds's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Donalds
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Donalds, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Donalds averages can't show:
We read public map data around Donalds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Donalds average
How we know this about Donalds
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 Abbeville 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 Donalds
When does frost risk typically end in Donalds?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Donalds typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Donalds?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Donalds typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Donalds?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Donalds sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 4, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Donalds?
The federal record around Donalds is a meaningful one — 149 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), 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 Donalds?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Donalds's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Donalds'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 Donalds’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Donalds's own scale — the 532 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Donalds's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Donalds, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Donalds's boundary and the 532 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Donalds's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Donalds has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Abbeville County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Donalds's 532 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Abbeville County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Abbeville 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 Abbeville County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Donalds's 532 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Donalds you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 532 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 Donalds-wide figureread your own land →
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