Marion, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Marion, 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 Marion 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 Marion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marion — the short answer
Marion, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Marion County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Marion's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marion's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marion
Each reading below is measured for Marion itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMarion runs about 273 days between hard freezes (read from Marion County, the closest normal to Marion) — 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
MeasuredMarion 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 Marion is in
Marion sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marion's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Marion
Every plant below cleared Marion's own zone 8b and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marion?
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 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 Dec 1 — 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 Marion
Survey cells within 31 miles of Marion checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 87 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Marion
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marion. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BST MARNSCMA 91438Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SOUTHERN BELL MARNSCMABrownfields · 950 ft
- BYARS MOTOR COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HERITAGE SPORTSWEARBrownfields · 1300 ft
- MARION COUNTY FAMILY COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JAMES GRICE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GAS CITY II FORMERLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MARION COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SERVICE AUTO SUPPLY COBrownfields · 1500 ft
- MAIN STREET CLEANERS INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1500 ft
- COASTAL COCA COLA BOTTLING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MARTINS SERVICE CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marion'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 Marion.
Total Sites
210
within ~10 miles of Marion
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marion
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marion
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marion, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Marion — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (154 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Marion
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 Marion average
Your land is one point inside Marion
Everything above resolves to Marion as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Marion 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 Marion Average
Marion Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Marion
- ●One soil character for all of Marion
- ●Frost dates read at Marion's scale: Mar 3 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marion's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marion
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marion, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marion averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marion average
How we know this about Marion
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 Marion 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 Marion
When does frost risk typically end in Marion?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marion 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 Marion?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marion typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marion?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marion sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 17, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marion?
The federal record around Marion is a meaningful one — 210 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (154), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Marion?
From about Nov 1 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 Dec 1 (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 Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marion's scale — its 8b band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marion'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 Marion’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Marion's own scale — the 2,865 acres it covers and 210 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marion's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 210 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marion, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marion's boundary and the 2,865 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marion's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Marion checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Marion has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Marion County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marion's 2,865 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marion's 2,865 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marion you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,865 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Marion-wide figureread your own land →
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