Isle of Palms, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Isle of Palms, 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 Isle of Palms 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 Isle of Palms — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Isle of Palms — the short answer
Isle of Palms, South Carolina: USDA zone 9a, about 320 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 1
- Charleston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Charleston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~320
- Charleston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Charleston County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Isle of Palms's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Isle of Palms's 320-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Isle of Palms
Each reading below is measured for Isle of Palms itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsIsle of Palms runs about 320 days between hard freezes (read from Charleston County, the closest normal to Isle of Palms) — 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
MeasuredIsle of Palms sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Isle of Palms is in
Isle of Palms sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Isle of Palms's own centroid rather than borrowed from Charleston County.
What Grows in Isle of Palms
Every plant below cleared Isle of Palms's own zone 9a and its 320-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Isle of Palms?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — 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 Isle of Palms
Survey cells within 31 miles of Isle of Palms checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 146 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Isle of Palms
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Isle of Palms. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ISLE OF PALMS MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CAROLINA MARINE SERVICEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- HARBOR COURSE MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PUBLIC WORKS DEPT AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LINKS COURSE MAINT FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- VEHICLE MAINT FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ISLE OF PALMS W/S COMM (SC1010004)PFAS · 1.7 mi
- BOB FLETCHER PAINTINGBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- ISLE OF PALMS WWTPBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- CHN- 20Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- CIRCLE K 2720492Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- 7 ELEVEN STORE 1432-11860Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Isle of Palms'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 Isle of Palms.
Total Sites
222
within ~10 miles of Isle of Palms
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Isle of Palms
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Isle of Palms
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Isle of Palms
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 Isle of Palms average
Your land is one point inside Isle of Palms
Everything above resolves to Isle of Palms as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Charleston 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 Isle of Palms Average
Isle of Palms Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Isle of Palms
- ●One soil character for all of Isle of Palms
- ●Frost dates read at Isle of Palms's scale: Feb 1 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Isle of Palms's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Isle of Palms
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Isle of Palms, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Isle of Palms averages can't show:
We read public map data around Isle of Palms — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Isle of Palms average
How we know this about Isle of Palms
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 Charleston 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 Isle of Palms
When does frost risk typically end in Isle of Palms?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Isle of Palms typically lands around Feb 1, 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 Feb 22.
When is the first frost in Isle of Palms?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Isle of Palms typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 320 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Isle of Palms?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Isle of Palms sees about 320 frost-free days — roughly Feb 1 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 22 to Dec 4, about 285 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Isle of Palms?
The federal record around Isle of Palms is a meaningful one — 222 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (121), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Isle of Palms?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Isle of Palms's scale — its 9a band and its 320-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Isle of Palms'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 Isle of Palms’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Isle of Palms's own scale — the 2,839 acres it covers and 222 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Isle of Palms's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 222 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Isle of Palms, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Isle of Palms's boundary and the 2,839 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~320-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Isle of Palms's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Isle of Palms checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Isle of Palms has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Charleston County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Isle of Palms's 2,839 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Charleston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Charleston 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 Charleston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Isle of Palms's 2,839 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Isle of Palms you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,839 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 Isle of Palms-wide figureread your own land →