Kershaw, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Kershaw, 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 Kershaw 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 Kershaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kershaw — the short answer
Kershaw, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Kershaw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kershaw's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kershaw
Each reading below is measured for Kershaw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKershaw runs about 252 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredKershaw 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 Kershaw is in
Kershaw sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kershaw's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lancaster County.
What Grows in Kershaw
Every plant below cleared Kershaw's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kershaw?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Kershaw
Survey cells within 31 miles of Kershaw checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 67 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kershaw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kershaw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KER- 2Nitrate · 150 ft
- E M TAYLOR SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- EVANS OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- REESE MARGIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ASHAKA LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MARKETTE 10Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BLACKMONS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR 919Brownfields · 1700 ft
- WALGREENS 17078Brownfields · 1800 ft
- ROBERTS SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KERSHAW AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WINDSTREAM SOUTH CAROLINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kershaw'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 Kershaw.
Total Sites
96
within ~10 miles of Kershaw
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kershaw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kershaw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kershaw, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kershaw — Underground Storage Tanks (67 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Kershaw
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 Kershaw average
Your land is one point inside Kershaw
Everything above resolves to Kershaw as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K acres. 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 Kershaw Average
Kershaw Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Kershaw
- ●One soil character for all of Kershaw
- ●Frost dates read at Kershaw's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kershaw's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kershaw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kershaw, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kershaw averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kershaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kershaw average
How we know this about Kershaw
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 Kershaw’s own record; 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 Kershaw
When does frost risk typically end in Kershaw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kershaw typically lands around Mar 15, 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 Apr 5.
When is the first frost in Kershaw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kershaw typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kershaw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kershaw sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 8, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kershaw?
The federal record around Kershaw shows 96 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Kershaw?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kershaw's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kershaw'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 Kershaw’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kershaw's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,293 acres it covers and 96 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kershaw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kershaw's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 22 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 96 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kershaw, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kershaw's boundary and the 1,293 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kershaw's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Kershaw checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kershaw's 1,293 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lancaster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lancaster 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 Lancaster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kershaw's 1,293 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kershaw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,293 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Kershaw-wide figureread your own land →