Lugoff, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lugoff, 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 Lugoff 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 Lugoff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lugoff — the short answer
Lugoff, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- Kershaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Kershaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- Kershaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 15K 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 Kershaw County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Lugoff's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lugoff's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lugoff
Each reading below is measured for Lugoff itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLugoff runs about 257 days between hard freezes (read from Kershaw County, the closest normal to Lugoff) — 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
MeasuredLugoff 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 Lugoff is in
Lugoff sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lugoff's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kershaw County.
What Grows in Lugoff
Every plant below cleared Lugoff's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lugoff?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Lugoff
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lugoff 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 Lugoff
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lugoff. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DANA OFF HIGHWAY PRODUCTS LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- TIM HORTON BODY SHOP INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CAMDEN CONCRETE NUMBER 3Toxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- KRM MIDLANDS, LLC-PLANT 8Toxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- HARDAWAY CONCRETE PLANT 7Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KNIGHT'S REDI-MIX PLANT 8Toxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- YOUNGS 3628Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MANCOR SC INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- SPICER HEAVY SYSTEMS ASSEMBLY DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- SPICER HEAVY SYSTEMS ASSEMBLY DIVISIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- LUCKY SEVEN 3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KER-81Nitrate · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lugoff'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 Lugoff.
Total Sites
264
within ~10 miles of Lugoff
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lugoff
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lugoff
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lugoff, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lugoff — Toxics Release Inventory (20 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (167 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lugoff
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 Lugoff average
Your land is one point inside Lugoff
Everything above resolves to Lugoff as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 15K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kershaw 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 Lugoff Average
Lugoff Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lugoff
- ●One soil character for all of Lugoff
- ●Frost dates read at Lugoff's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lugoff's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lugoff
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lugoff, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lugoff averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lugoff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lugoff average
How we know this about Lugoff
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 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 Lugoff
When does frost risk typically end in Lugoff?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lugoff typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Lugoff?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lugoff typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lugoff?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lugoff sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 12, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lugoff?
The federal record around Lugoff is a meaningful one — 264 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (167), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Lugoff?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lugoff's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lugoff'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 Lugoff’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lugoff's own scale — the 14,578 acres it covers and 264 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lugoff's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 264 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lugoff, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lugoff's boundary and the 14,578 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lugoff's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lugoff checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lugoff has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kershaw County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lugoff's 14,578 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kershaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kershaw 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 Kershaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lugoff's 14,578 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lugoff you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,578 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Lugoff-wide figureread your own land →
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