Dovesville, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Dovesville, 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 Dovesville 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 Dovesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dovesville — the short answer
Dovesville, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Darlington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Darlington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- Darlington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Darlington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Dovesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dovesville's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dovesville
Each reading below is measured for Dovesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDovesville runs about 261 days between hard freezes (read from Darlington County, the closest normal to Dovesville) — 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
MeasuredDovesville 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 Dovesville is in
Dovesville sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dovesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Darlington County.
What Grows in Dovesville
Every plant below cleared Dovesville's own zone 8b and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dovesville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Dovesville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dovesville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 92 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dovesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dovesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NUCOR STEELUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KEITHS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- JETT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EUNICE'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LEE'S GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- JACK ROSS FLYING SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- IMS DIV TUBE CITY IMSToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- DARLINGTON SHREDDING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DAR- 49Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- NUCOR CORPORATION - DARLINGTON PLANTBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- NUCOR CORPORATION - DARLINGTON PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- GALEY AND LORD SLUDGE DISPOSAL SITESSuperfund · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dovesville'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 Dovesville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dovesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dovesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dovesville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dovesville — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (223 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Dovesville
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 Dovesville average
Your land is one point inside Dovesville
Everything above resolves to Dovesville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Darlington 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 Dovesville Average
Dovesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Dovesville
- ●One soil character for all of Dovesville
- ●Frost dates read at Dovesville's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dovesville's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dovesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dovesville, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dovesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dovesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dovesville average
How we know this about Dovesville
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 Darlington 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 Dovesville
When does frost risk typically end in Dovesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dovesville typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Dovesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dovesville typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dovesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dovesville sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 11, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dovesville?
The federal record around Dovesville is a meaningful one — 307 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (223), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Dovesville?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dovesville's scale — its 8b band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dovesville'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 Dovesville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dovesville's own scale — the 4,485 acres it covers and 307 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dovesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 307 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dovesville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dovesville's boundary and the 4,485 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dovesville's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dovesville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Dovesville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Darlington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dovesville's 4,485 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Darlington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Darlington 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 Darlington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dovesville's 4,485 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dovesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,485 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 Dovesville-wide figureread your own land →
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