Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mount Pleasant, 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 Pleasant 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 Pleasant — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mount Pleasant — the short answer
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: USDA zone 9a, about 320 days between hard freezes, across 32K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 1
- Charleston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Charleston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~320
- Charleston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 32K 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 Charleston County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Mount Pleasant's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Pleasant's 320-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Pleasant
Each reading below is measured for Mount Pleasant itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMount Pleasant runs about 320 days between hard freezes (read from Charleston County, the closest normal to Mount Pleasant) — 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
MeasuredMount Pleasant sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Pleasant is in
Mount Pleasant sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Pleasant's own centroid rather than borrowed from Charleston County.
What Grows in Mount Pleasant
Every plant below cleared Mount Pleasant's own zone 9a and its 320-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Pleasant?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Mount Pleasant
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mount Pleasant checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 151 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mount Pleasant
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Pleasant. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SALLY BEAUTY SUPPLY #1830Brownfields · 1200 ft
- PUBLIX SUPERMARKET 449 QUEENSBOROUGH SHOPPING CENTERBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MOUNT PLEASANT WATERWORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HUDSON IMPORTBrownfields · 1900 ft
- CIRCLE K 8088Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- JIFFY LUBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SOUTHEASTERN VISION INSTITUTE LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PUBLIX SUPERMARKET 1646 POINT HOPE COMMONSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CIRCLE K 2708089Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RECTORS CAR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KINDRED HOSPITAL CHARLESTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EAST COOPER MEDICAL CENTER WOUND CLINICBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Pleasant'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 Pleasant.
Total Sites
1,176
within ~10 miles of Mount Pleasant
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
28 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Pleasant
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Pleasant
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Pleasant, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Mount Pleasant. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Mount Pleasant
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 Pleasant average
Your land is one point inside Mount Pleasant
Everything above resolves to Mount Pleasant as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 32K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Charleston 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 Pleasant Average
Mount Pleasant Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Mount Pleasant
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Pleasant
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Pleasant's scale: Feb 1 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Pleasant's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Pleasant
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Pleasant averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Pleasant — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Pleasant average
How we know this about Mount Pleasant
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 Charleston 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 Pleasant
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Pleasant?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Pleasant typically lands around Feb 1, 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 Feb 22.
When is the first frost in Mount Pleasant?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Pleasant typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 320 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Pleasant?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Pleasant sees about 320 frost-free days — roughly Feb 1 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 22 to Dec 4, about 285 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Pleasant?
The federal record around Mount Pleasant is a meaningful one — 1,176 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (690), the nearest Brownfields 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 Mount Pleasant?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Pleasant's scale — its 9a band and its 320-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Pleasant'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 Pleasant’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mount Pleasant's own scale — the 31,779 acres it covers and 1,176 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Pleasant's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,176 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Pleasant, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Pleasant's boundary and the 31,779 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~320-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Pleasant's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mount Pleasant checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mount Pleasant has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Charleston County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Pleasant's 31,779 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Charleston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Charleston 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 Charleston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Pleasant's 31,779 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Pleasant you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 31,779 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Mount Pleasant-wide figureread your own land →