East Camden, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 East Camden, 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 East Camden 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 East Camden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Camden — the short answer
East Camden, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- Kershaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Kershaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- Kershaw 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 Kershaw County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is East Camden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Camden's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Camden
Each reading below is measured for East Camden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEast Camden runs about 257 days between hard freezes (read from Kershaw County, the closest normal to East Camden) — 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
MeasuredEast Camden 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 East Camden is in
East Camden sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at East Camden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kershaw County.
What Grows in East Camden
Every plant below cleared East Camden's own zone 8b and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Camden?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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.
Documented around East Camden
Survey cells within 31 miles of East Camden checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 86 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Camden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Camden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIRCLE K 2720571Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- C&P AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- SM 5Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- BORDEN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MR G'S FOOD STORE 130Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ROBBIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- COBB HARDWARE AND SUPPLY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- V GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BUILDERS TRANSPORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KERSHAW COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SAND HILL GRAPHICSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WINNERS CIRCLE MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Camden'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 East Camden.
Total Sites
212
within ~10 miles of East Camden
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Camden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Camden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Camden, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of East Camden — Toxics Release Inventory (16 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (132 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in East Camden
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 East Camden average
Your land is one point inside East Camden
Everything above resolves to East Camden as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kershaw 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 East Camden Average
East Camden Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across East Camden
- ●One soil character for all of East Camden
- ●Frost dates read at East Camden's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Camden's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Camden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Camden, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Camden averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Camden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Camden average
How we know this about East Camden
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 Kershaw 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 East Camden
When does frost risk typically end in East Camden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Camden typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in East Camden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Camden typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Camden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Camden sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 12, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Camden?
The federal record around East Camden is a meaningful one — 212 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (132), 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 East Camden?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Camden's scale — its 8b band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Camden'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 East Camden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at East Camden's own scale — the 2,291 acres it covers and 212 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Camden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 212 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Camden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Camden's boundary and the 2,291 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Camden's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around East Camden checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — East Camden has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kershaw County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Camden's 2,291 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kershaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kershaw 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 Kershaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Camden's 2,291 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Camden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,291 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 East Camden-wide figureread your own land →
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