Fountain Inn, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Fountain Inn, 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 Fountain Inn 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 Fountain Inn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fountain Inn — the short answer
Fountain Inn, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 6K 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 Fountain Inn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fountain Inn's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fountain Inn
Each reading below is measured for Fountain Inn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFountain Inn runs about 262 days between hard freezes (read from Greenville County, the closest normal to Fountain Inn) — 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
MeasuredFountain Inn 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 Fountain Inn is in
Fountain Inn sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fountain Inn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greenville County.
What Grows in Fountain Inn
Every plant below cleared Fountain Inn'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 Fountain Inn?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Fountain Inn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fountain Inn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOUNTAIN INN CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- FOUNTAIN INN WELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 5542Brownfields · 900 ft
- A E GREEN CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SOUTHERN BELL FNINSCESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SSL PROPERTIES FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BODYCOTE THERMAL PROCESSINGToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- BODYCOTE THERMAL PROCESSINGBrownfields · 1400 ft
- COOPER & BELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SPINX 252Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- GAULT'S HANDEE MART'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FORMER GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fountain Inn'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 Fountain Inn.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fountain Inn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fountain Inn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fountain Inn, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 69 sites within ~10 miles of Fountain Inn. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fountain Inn
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 Fountain Inn average
Your land is one point inside Fountain Inn
Everything above resolves to Fountain Inn as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Greenville County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Fountain Inn Average
Fountain Inn Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Fountain Inn
- ●One soil character for all of Fountain Inn
- ●Frost dates read at Fountain Inn's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fountain Inn's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fountain Inn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fountain Inn, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fountain Inn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fountain Inn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fountain Inn average
How we know this about Fountain Inn
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Fountain Inn
When does frost risk typically end in Fountain Inn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fountain Inn 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 Fountain Inn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fountain Inn 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 Fountain Inn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fountain Inn 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 Fountain Inn?
The federal record around Fountain Inn runs heavier than most — 536 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (254), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fountain Inn?
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 Fountain Inn's scale — its 8a band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fountain Inn'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 Fountain Inn’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fountain Inn's own scale — the 5,503 acres it covers and 536 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fountain Inn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 536 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fountain Inn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fountain Inn's boundary and the 5,503 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 Fountain Inn's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fountain Inn 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 Fountain Inn's 5,503 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 Fountain Inn's 5,503 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fountain Inn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,503 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fountain Inn-wide figureread your own land →