Hartsville, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hartsville, 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 Hartsville 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 Hartsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hartsville — the short answer
Hartsville, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Darlington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Darlington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- Darlington 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 Darlington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Hartsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hartsville's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hartsville
Each reading below is measured for Hartsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHartsville runs about 261 days between hard freezes (read from Darlington County, the closest normal to Hartsville) — 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
MeasuredHartsville 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 Hartsville is in
Hartsville sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hartsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Darlington County.
What Grows in Hartsville
Every plant below cleared Hartsville's own zone 8a and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hartsville?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Hartsville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hartsville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 89 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hartsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hartsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARTSVILLE RECREATION DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SPIDERS PUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NORTHRUP KING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MORRISON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MJ MAC INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1600 ft
- NORTHRUP KING COBrownfields · 1600 ft
- JOHNSON AUTOMOTIVE PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WARDS RADIATOR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HARTSVILLE FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DAR- 71Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- FORMERLY W D ARTHUR OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MARKET PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hartsville'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 Hartsville.
Total Sites
188
within ~10 miles of Hartsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hartsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hartsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hartsville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 132 sites within ~10 miles of Hartsville. 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 Hartsville
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 Hartsville average
Your land is one point inside Hartsville
Everything above resolves to Hartsville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Darlington 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 Hartsville Average
Hartsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hartsville
- ●One soil character for all of Hartsville
- ●Frost dates read at Hartsville's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hartsville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hartsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hartsville, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hartsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hartsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hartsville average
How we know this about Hartsville
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 Darlington 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 Hartsville
When does frost risk typically end in Hartsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hartsville typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Hartsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hartsville typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hartsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hartsville sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 11, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hartsville?
The federal record around Hartsville is a meaningful one — 188 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (132), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Hartsville?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hartsville's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hartsville'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 Hartsville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hartsville's own scale — the 3,849 acres it covers and 188 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hartsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 188 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hartsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hartsville's boundary and the 3,849 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hartsville's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hartsville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hartsville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Darlington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hartsville's 3,849 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Darlington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Darlington 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 Darlington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hartsville's 3,849 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hartsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,849 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Hartsville-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Carolina
Growing region
Nearby growing guides