Harleyville, 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.
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 Harleyville, 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 Harleyville 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 Harleyville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Harleyville — the short answer
Harleyville, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 290 days between hard freezes, across 680 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- Dorchester County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Dorchester County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~290
- Dorchester County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 680 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 Dorchester County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Harleyville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harleyville's 290-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Harleyville
Each reading below is measured for Harleyville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHarleyville runs about 290 days between hard freezes (read from Dorchester County, the closest normal to Harleyville) — 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
MeasuredHarleyville 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 Harleyville is in
Harleyville sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Harleyville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dorchester County.
What Grows in Harleyville
Every plant below cleared Harleyville's own zone 8b and its 290-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Harleyville?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — 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 Harleyville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Harleyville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 159 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Harleyville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Harleyville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARLEYVILLE ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- THE MARKET ON MAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- HARLEYVILLE GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- I 95 EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- HARLEYVILLE TOWN OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- HOT SPOT 1608Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JENKINS HILL ELEM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HARLEYVILLE TRUCK STOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ARGOS CEMENT LLC HARLEYVILLE CEMENT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- QUIKRETE CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS, LLC - HARLEYVILLE CEMENT PLANTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- QUIKRETE CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS, LLC - HARLEYVILLE CEMENT PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- CAROLINA COMPOSITES LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Harleyville'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 Harleyville.
Total Sites
191
within ~10 miles of Harleyville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Harleyville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Harleyville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Harleyville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 124 sites within ~10 miles of Harleyville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Harleyville
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 Harleyville average
Your land is one point inside Harleyville
Everything above resolves to Harleyville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 680 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dorchester 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 Harleyville Average
Harleyville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Harleyville
- ●One soil character for all of Harleyville
- ●Frost dates read at Harleyville's scale: Feb 20 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harleyville's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Harleyville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harleyville, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harleyville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harleyville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harleyville average
How we know this about Harleyville
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 Dorchester 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 Harleyville
When does frost risk typically end in Harleyville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harleyville typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Harleyville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Harleyville typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 290 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Harleyville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harleyville sees about 290 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 23, about 255 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Harleyville?
The federal record around Harleyville is a meaningful one — 191 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), 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 Harleyville?
From about Nov 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Harleyville's scale — its 8b band and its 290-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harleyville'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 Harleyville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Harleyville's own scale — the 680 acres it covers and 191 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harleyville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 191 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Harleyville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Harleyville's boundary and the 680 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~290-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Harleyville's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Harleyville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Harleyville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Dorchester County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Harleyville's 680 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dorchester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dorchester 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 Dorchester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Harleyville's 680 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Harleyville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 680 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 Harleyville-wide figureread your own land →