Mullins, 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.
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 Mullins, 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 Mullins 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 Mullins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mullins — the short answer
Mullins, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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
- 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 Marion County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Mullins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mullins's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mullins
Each reading below is measured for Mullins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMullins runs about 273 days between hard freezes (read from Marion County, the closest normal to Mullins) — 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
MeasuredMullins 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 Mullins is in
Mullins sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mullins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Mullins
Every plant below cleared Mullins'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 Mullins?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Mullins
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mullins checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 78 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mullins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mullins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SLI LIGHTING PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 500 ft
- QUALITY CLEANERS & ALTERATIONS OF MULLINBrownfields · 1000 ft
- SOUTHERN BELL MLNSSCWPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- QUICKSHOP 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BAXLEYS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ARVIN MERITOR MULLINSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MARVEL LIGHTING CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MOVIE GALLERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SOUTH PARK STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MULLINS SCHOOL DISTRICT MAINTENANCE SHOPEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MALCOLMS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- G&M SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mullins'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 Mullins.
Total Sites
213
within ~10 miles of Mullins
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mullins
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mullins
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mullins, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 164 sites within ~10 miles of Mullins. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Mullins
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 Mullins average
Your land is one point inside Mullins
Everything above resolves to Mullins as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K 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 Mullins Average
Mullins Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Mullins
- ●One soil character for all of Mullins
- ●Frost dates read at Mullins's scale: Mar 3 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mullins's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mullins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mullins, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mullins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mullins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mullins average
How we know this about Mullins
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 Mullins
When does frost risk typically end in Mullins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mullins 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 Mullins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mullins 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 Mullins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mullins 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 Mullins?
The federal record around Mullins is a meaningful one — 213 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (164), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mullins?
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 Mullins's scale — its 8b band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mullins'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 Mullins’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mullins's own scale — the 2,044 acres it covers and 213 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mullins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 213 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mullins, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mullins's boundary and the 2,044 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 Mullins's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mullins checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mullins 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 Mullins's 2,044 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 Mullins's 2,044 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mullins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,044 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mullins-wide figureread your own land →
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