Manning, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Manning, 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 Manning 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 Manning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Manning — the short answer
Manning, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Clarendon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Clarendon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- Clarendon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Clarendon County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Manning's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Manning's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Manning
Each reading below is measured for Manning itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsManning runs about 270 days between hard freezes (read from Clarendon County, the closest normal to Manning) — 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
MeasuredManning 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 Manning is in
Manning sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Manning's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clarendon County.
What Grows in Manning
Every plant below cleared Manning's own zone 8b and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Manning?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Manning
Survey cells within 31 miles of Manning checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 129 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Manning
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Manning. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARIKRISHNA LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 3597Brownfields · 750 ft
- MADHURAS REALTY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- JENKINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- RHAME BROTHERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PARTY WORLDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR 187Brownfields · 1400 ft
- PROTHRO CHEVROLET & OLDSMOBILE INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1500 ft
- EL CHEAPOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- COUNTRY CROSSROADSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SUNNYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CHARLIES LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Manning'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 Manning.
Total Sites
169
within ~10 miles of Manning
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Manning
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Manning
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Manning, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 136 sites within ~10 miles of Manning. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Manning
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 Manning average
Your land is one point inside Manning
Everything above resolves to Manning as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clarendon 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 Manning Average
Manning Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Manning
- ●One soil character for all of Manning
- ●Frost dates read at Manning's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Manning's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Manning
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Manning, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Manning averages can't show:
We read public map data around Manning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Manning average
How we know this about Manning
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 Clarendon 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 Manning
When does frost risk typically end in Manning?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Manning typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Manning?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Manning 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 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Manning?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Manning sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 14, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Manning?
The federal record around Manning shows 169 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (136), 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 Manning?
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 Manning's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Manning'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 Manning’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Manning's own scale — the 1,878 acres it covers and 169 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Manning's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 169 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Manning, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Manning's boundary and the 1,878 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Manning's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Manning checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Manning has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clarendon County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Manning's 1,878 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clarendon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clarendon 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 Clarendon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Manning's 1,878 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Manning you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,878 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 Manning-wide figureread your own land →
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