Lane, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Lane, 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 Lane 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 Lane — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lane — the short answer
Lane, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 266 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- Williamsburg County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Williamsburg County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~266
- Williamsburg 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 Williamsburg County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Lane's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lane's 266-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lane
Each reading below is measured for Lane itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLane runs about 266 days between hard freezes (read from Williamsburg County, the closest normal to Lane) — 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
MeasuredLane 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 Lane is in
Lane sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lane's own centroid rather than borrowed from Williamsburg County.
What Grows in Lane
Every plant below cleared Lane's own zone 8b and its 266-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lane?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Lane
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lane checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 125 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lane
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lane. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOISE WILSON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- LANE TELEPHONE EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- LANE R SC3720Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- SANTEE POLE & PILING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WL- 33Nitrate · 1100 ft
- B C ROGERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- O'NEALS GROUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- WL- 14Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- TISDALES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- WCWSA (SC4510007)PFAS · 3.5 mi
- FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION WILLIAMSBURGToxics Release Inventory · 4.4 mi
- PREVATTES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lane'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 Lane.
Total Sites
141
within ~10 miles of Lane
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lane
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lane
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lane, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lane — Nitrate (38 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (87 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lane
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 Lane average
Your land is one point inside Lane
Everything above resolves to Lane as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Williamsburg 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 Lane Average
Lane Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Lane
- ●One soil character for all of Lane
- ●Frost dates read at Lane's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lane's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lane
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lane, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lane averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lane — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lane average
How we know this about Lane
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 Williamsburg 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 Lane
When does frost risk typically end in Lane?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lane typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Lane?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lane typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 266 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lane?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lane sees about 266 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 14, about 231 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lane?
The federal record around Lane shows 141 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Lane?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lane's scale — its 8b band and its 266-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lane'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 Lane’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lane's own scale — the 2,528 acres it covers and 141 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lane's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 141 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lane, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lane's boundary and the 2,528 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~266-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lane's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lane checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lane has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Williamsburg County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lane's 2,528 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Williamsburg County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Williamsburg 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 Williamsburg County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lane's 2,528 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lane you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,528 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Lane-wide figureread your own land →