Hamer, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hamer, 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 Hamer 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 Hamer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hamer — the short answer
Hamer, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- Dillon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Dillon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- Dillon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Dillon County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Hamer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hamer's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hamer
Each reading below is measured for Hamer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHamer runs about 267 days between hard freezes (read from Dillon County, the closest normal to Hamer) — 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
MeasuredHamer 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 Hamer is in
Hamer sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hamer's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dillon County.
What Grows in Hamer
Every plant below cleared Hamer's own zone 8b and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hamer?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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.
Documented around Hamer
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hamer checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 84 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hamer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hamer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHARLES CRAFT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JABSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SCHAFER DISTRIBUTING COMPANYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FLOYDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HUNTS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DIL- 57Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- TWIN LAKES COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ANVIL KNITWEARSuperfund · 1.2 mi
- ANVIL KNITWEARToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- ANVIL KNITWEARBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- NEW SCHAFER DISTRIBUTING GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TALL PINES GROCERY & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hamer'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 Hamer.
Total Sites
190
within ~10 miles of Hamer
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hamer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hamer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hamer, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hamer — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (145 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hamer
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 Hamer average
Your land is one point inside Hamer
Everything above resolves to Hamer as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dillon 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 Hamer Average
Hamer Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Hamer
- ●One soil character for all of Hamer
- ●Frost dates read at Hamer's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hamer's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hamer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hamer, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hamer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hamer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hamer average
How we know this about Hamer
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 Dillon 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 Hamer
When does frost risk typically end in Hamer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hamer typically lands around Mar 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Hamer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hamer typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hamer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hamer sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 13, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hamer?
The federal record around Hamer is a meaningful one — 190 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (145), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Hamer?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hamer's scale — its 8b band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hamer'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 Hamer’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hamer's own scale — the 3,229 acres it covers and 190 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hamer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 190 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hamer, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hamer's boundary and the 3,229 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hamer's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hamer checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hamer has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Dillon County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hamer's 3,229 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dillon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dillon 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 Dillon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hamer's 3,229 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hamer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,229 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Hamer-wide figureread your own land →
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