Dunean, 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.
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 Dunean, 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 Dunean 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 Dunean — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dunean — the short answer
Dunean, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Greenville County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Greenville County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- Greenville County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Greenville County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Dunean's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dunean's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dunean
Each reading below is measured for Dunean itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDunean runs about 262 days between hard freezes (read from Greenville County, the closest normal to Dunean) — 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
MeasuredDunean 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 Dunean is in
Dunean sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dunean's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greenville County.
What Grows in Dunean
Every plant below cleared Dunean's own zone 8a and its 262-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dunean?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Dunean
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dunean checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 41 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dunean
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dunean. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPINX 116Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- PARKER DISTRICT FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- T&R ENVIRONMENTALBrownfields · 800 ft
- EYE INSTITUREBrownfields · 800 ft
- PATHOLOGY ASSOC OF GREENVILBrownfields · 1100 ft
- GREENVILLE SURGERY CENTER DBA PIEDMONT SURGERY CENTERBrownfields · 1100 ft
- GREENVILLE OB/GYN - MAINBrownfields · 1100 ft
- GREENVILLE SURGERY CENTER LP DBA PIEDMONT SURGERY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FRANK ULMER LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- KMART 4016Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ENGINEERED PRODUCTS, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- CELY CONSTRUCTION CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dunean'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 Dunean.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dunean
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dunean
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dunean, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 132 sites within ~10 miles of Dunean. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Dunean
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 Dunean average
Your land is one point inside Dunean
Everything above resolves to Dunean as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Greenville 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 Dunean Average
Dunean Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Dunean
- ●One soil character for all of Dunean
- ●Frost dates read at Dunean's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dunean's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dunean
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dunean, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dunean averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dunean — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dunean average
How we know this about Dunean
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 Greenville 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 Dunean
When does frost risk typically end in Dunean?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dunean typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Dunean?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dunean typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 262 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dunean?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dunean sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 14, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dunean?
The federal record around Dunean is a meaningful one — 1,851 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,038), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dunean?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dunean's scale — its 8a band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dunean'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 Dunean’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dunean's own scale — the 1,004 acres it covers and 1,851 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dunean's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,851 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dunean, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dunean's boundary and the 1,004 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dunean's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dunean checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Dunean has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Greenville County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dunean's 1,004 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greenville County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greenville 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 Greenville County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dunean's 1,004 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dunean you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,004 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dunean-wide figureread your own land →