Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Myrtle Beach, 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 Myrtle Beach 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 Myrtle Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Myrtle Beach — the short answer
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- Horry County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Horry County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- Horry County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 15K 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 Horry County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Myrtle Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Myrtle Beach's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Myrtle Beach
Each reading below is measured for Myrtle Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMyrtle Beach runs about 277 days between hard freezes (read from Horry County, the closest normal to Myrtle Beach) — 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
MeasuredMyrtle Beach 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 Myrtle Beach is in
Myrtle Beach sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Myrtle Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Horry County.
What Grows in Myrtle Beach
Every plant below cleared Myrtle Beach's own zone 8b and its 277-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Myrtle Beach?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — 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 Myrtle Beach
Survey cells within 31 miles of Myrtle Beach checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 68 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Myrtle Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Myrtle Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCOTCHMAN 3221Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TIDELANDS HEALTH CANCER CARE NETWORK AT MYRTLE BEACHBrownfields · 1800 ft
- SCOTCHMAN 3143Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PANTRY 425Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- LOWES OF MYRTLE BEACH #410Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- OLD POLICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- OLD SHOP PUBLIC WORKS BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TJ MAXX STORE# 0132Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #16372Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- TARGET STORE T0963Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- GENERAL TELEPHONE OF THE SOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SPEEDWAY 4575Brownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Myrtle Beach'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 Myrtle Beach.
Total Sites
578
within ~10 miles of Myrtle Beach
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Myrtle Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Myrtle Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Myrtle Beach
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 Myrtle Beach average
Your land is one point inside Myrtle Beach
Everything above resolves to Myrtle Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 15K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Horry 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 Myrtle Beach Average
Myrtle Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Myrtle Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Myrtle Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Myrtle Beach's scale: Mar 2 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Myrtle Beach's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Myrtle Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Myrtle Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Myrtle Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Myrtle Beach average
How we know this about Myrtle Beach
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 Horry 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 Myrtle Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Myrtle Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Myrtle Beach typically lands around Mar 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Myrtle Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Myrtle Beach typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 277 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Myrtle Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Myrtle Beach sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 20, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Myrtle Beach?
The federal record around Myrtle Beach is a meaningful one — 578 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (327), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Myrtle Beach?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Myrtle Beach's scale — its 8b band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Myrtle Beach'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 Myrtle Beach’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Myrtle Beach's own scale — the 14,984 acres it covers and 578 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Myrtle Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 578 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Myrtle Beach, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Myrtle Beach's boundary and the 14,984 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Myrtle Beach's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Myrtle Beach checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Myrtle Beach has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Horry County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Myrtle Beach's 14,984 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Horry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Horry 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 Horry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Myrtle Beach's 14,984 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Myrtle Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,984 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Myrtle Beach-wide figureread your own land →