Mount Carmel, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mount Carmel, 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 Mount Carmel 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 Mount Carmel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Carmel — the short answer
Mount Carmel, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- McCormick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- McCormick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- McCormick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 McCormick County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Mount Carmel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Carmel's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Carmel
Each reading below is measured for Mount Carmel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMount Carmel runs about 258 days between hard freezes (read from McCormick County, the closest normal to Mount Carmel) — 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
MeasuredMount Carmel 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 Mount Carmel is in
Mount Carmel sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Carmel's own centroid rather than borrowed from McCormick County.
What Grows in Mount Carmel
Every plant below cleared Mount Carmel's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Carmel?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Mount Carmel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Carmel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MT CARMEL CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TODDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MOUNT CARMEL AUTO & TIRE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GIANT RUBBER WATER TANKSToxics Release Inventory · 3.4 mi
- 7 ELEVEN 36851Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, SAVANNAH DISTRICT CORPS OF ENGINEERS (RICHARD B. RUSSELLBrownfields · 5.3 mi
- GA DNR/BOBBY BROWN STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- ELBERT COUNTY FISH & GAME CONSERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- MRS H M PLESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- ABBEVILLE CITY OFPFAS · 5.9 mi
- BORDEAUX COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- JOHN DE LA HOWE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Carmel'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 Mount Carmel.
Total Sites
49
within ~10 miles of Mount Carmel
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Carmel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Carmel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Carmel, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 41 sites within ~10 miles of Mount Carmel. 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 Mount Carmel
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 Mount Carmel average
Your land is one point inside Mount Carmel
Everything above resolves to Mount Carmel as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from McCormick 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 Mount Carmel Average
Mount Carmel Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Mount Carmel
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Carmel
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Carmel's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Carmel's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Carmel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Carmel, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Carmel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Carmel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Carmel average
How we know this about Mount Carmel
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 McCormick 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 Mount Carmel
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Carmel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Carmel typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Mount Carmel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Carmel typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Carmel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Carmel sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 10, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Carmel?
The federal record around Mount Carmel shows 49 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Mount Carmel?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Carmel's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Carmel'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 Mount Carmel’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mount Carmel's own scale — the 5,881 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Carmel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Carmel, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Carmel's boundary and the 5,881 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Carmel's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mount Carmel has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom McCormick County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Carmel's 5,881 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McCormick County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McCormick 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 McCormick County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Carmel's 5,881 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Carmel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,881 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Mount Carmel-wide figureread your own land →
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