Georgetown, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Georgetown, 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 Georgetown 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 Georgetown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Georgetown — the short answer
Georgetown, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Georgetown County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Georgetown County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Georgetown County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Georgetown County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Georgetown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Georgetown's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Georgetown
Each reading below is measured for Georgetown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGeorgetown runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Georgetown County, the closest normal to Georgetown) — 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
MeasuredGeorgetown 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 Georgetown is in
Georgetown sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Georgetown's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Georgetown County is mostly Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Georgetown
Every plant below cleared Georgetown's own zone 8b and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Georgetown?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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 Georgetown
Survey cells within 31 miles of Georgetown checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 100 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Georgetown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Georgetown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GEORGETOWN COUNTY SCHOOL MAINT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- FORMERLY HUDSONS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SEA STORE 66Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HASELDEN OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GEORGETOWN LAUNDRYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- GEO- 1Nitrate · 1700 ft
- GEO- 20Nitrate · 1700 ft
- BAY MICROSURGICAL UNITBrownfields · 1700 ft
- MASTER CRAFT CABINETSBrownfields · 1800 ft
- HOOVER DODGE CHRYSLER PLYMOUTHBrownfields · 1900 ft
- CHARTER FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- GEORGETOWN ICE & FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Georgetown'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 Georgetown.
Total Sites
216
within ~10 miles of Georgetown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Georgetown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Georgetown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Georgetown, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 134 sites within ~10 miles of Georgetown. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Georgetown
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 Georgetown average
Your land is one point inside Georgetown
Everything above resolves to Georgetown as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Georgetown 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 Georgetown Average
Georgetown Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Georgetown
- ●One soil character for all of Georgetown
- ●Frost dates read at Georgetown's scale: Feb 23 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Georgetown's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Georgetown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Georgetown, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Georgetown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Georgetown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Georgetown average
How we know this about Georgetown
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 Georgetown 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 Georgetown
When does frost risk typically end in Georgetown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Georgetown typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Georgetown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Georgetown typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Georgetown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Georgetown sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 25, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Georgetown?
The federal record around Georgetown is a meaningful one — 216 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (134), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Georgetown?
From about Nov 9 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 Dec 9 (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 Dec 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Georgetown's scale — its 8b band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Georgetown'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 Georgetown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Georgetown's own scale — the 4,475 acres it covers and 216 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Georgetown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 216 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Georgetown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Georgetown's boundary and the 4,475 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Georgetown sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Georgetown checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Georgetown has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Georgetown County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Georgetown's 4,475 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Georgetown County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Georgetown 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 Georgetown County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Georgetown's 4,475 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Georgetown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,475 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 Georgetown-wide figureread your own land →