Gillisonville, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Gillisonville, 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 Gillisonville 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 Gillisonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gillisonville — the short answer
Gillisonville, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 302 days between hard freezes, across 756 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Jasper County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Jasper County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~302
- Jasper County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 756 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 Jasper County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Gillisonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gillisonville's 302-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gillisonville
Each reading below is measured for Gillisonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGillisonville runs about 302 days between hard freezes (read from Jasper County, the closest normal to Gillisonville) — 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
MeasuredGillisonville 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 Gillisonville is in
Gillisonville sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gillisonville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jasper County.
What Grows in Gillisonville
Every plant below cleared Gillisonville's own zone 8b and its 302-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gillisonville?
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 Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Gillisonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gillisonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESTVACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JAS- 468Nitrate · 2600 ft
- JAS- 425Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- GARVINS CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GOSWICK GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GILLISONVILLE GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MOFFETT SOLAR 1, LLC -GATE BBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- JAS- 427Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- KEITHS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- HORTONS BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- TIGER EXPRESS COOSAWHATCHIE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- COOSAWHATCHIE GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gillisonville'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 Gillisonville.
Total Sites
119
within ~10 miles of Gillisonville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gillisonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gillisonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gillisonville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 86 sites within ~10 miles of Gillisonville. 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 Gillisonville
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 Gillisonville average
Your land is one point inside Gillisonville
Everything above resolves to Gillisonville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 756 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jasper 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 Gillisonville Average
Gillisonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Gillisonville
- ●One soil character for all of Gillisonville
- ●Frost dates read at Gillisonville's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gillisonville's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gillisonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gillisonville, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gillisonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gillisonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gillisonville average
How we know this about Gillisonville
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 Jasper 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 Gillisonville
When does frost risk typically end in Gillisonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gillisonville typically lands around Feb 12, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Gillisonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gillisonville typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 302 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gillisonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gillisonville sees about 302 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 27, about 267 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gillisonville?
The federal record around Gillisonville shows 119 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gillisonville?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gillisonville's scale — its 8b band and its 302-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gillisonville'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 Gillisonville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Gillisonville's own scale — the 756 acres it covers and 119 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gillisonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 119 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gillisonville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gillisonville's boundary and the 756 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~302-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gillisonville's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gillisonville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jasper County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gillisonville's 756 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jasper County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jasper 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 Jasper County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gillisonville's 756 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gillisonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 756 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Gillisonville-wide figureread your own land →