Lydia, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Lydia, 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 Lydia 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 Lydia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lydia — the short answer
Lydia, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- 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
- Town area
- 2K 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 8b is Lydia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lydia's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lydia
Each reading below is measured for Lydia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLydia runs about 261 days between hard freezes (read from Darlington County, the closest normal to Lydia) — 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
MeasuredLydia 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 Lydia is in
Lydia sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lydia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Darlington County.
What Grows in Lydia
Every plant below cleared Lydia's own zone 8b and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lydia?
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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Lydia
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lydia checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 93 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lydia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lydia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LYDIA HWY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TOMMYS SELF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BASS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HARTSVILLE LUMBER BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WAYSIDE FARMSSuperfund · 1.5 mi
- SONOCO PRODUCTS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PEPSI COLA BOTTLING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PET DAIRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MARKETTE NO 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- ROLLER BEARING CO OF AMERICAToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- ROLLER BEARING CO OF AMERICABrownfields · 2.7 mi
- LEE COUNTY SOLID WASTE PROCESSING FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lydia'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 Lydia.
Total Sites
292
within ~10 miles of Lydia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lydia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lydia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lydia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lydia — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (204 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lydia
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 Lydia average
Your land is one point inside Lydia
Everything above resolves to Lydia as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Darlington 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 Lydia Average
Lydia Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Lydia
- ●One soil character for all of Lydia
- ●Frost dates read at Lydia's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lydia's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lydia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lydia, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lydia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lydia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lydia average
How we know this about Lydia
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 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 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 Lydia
When does frost risk typically end in Lydia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lydia 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 Lydia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lydia 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 Lydia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lydia 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 Lydia?
The federal record around Lydia is a meaningful one — 292 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (204), 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 Lydia?
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 Lydia's scale — its 8b band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lydia'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 Lydia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lydia's own scale — the 1,692 acres it covers and 292 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lydia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 292 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lydia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lydia's boundary and the 1,692 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lydia's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lydia checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lydia 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 Lydia's 1,692 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 Lydia's 1,692 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lydia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,692 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 Lydia-wide figureread your own land →
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