Neeses, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Neeses, 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 Neeses 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 Neeses — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Neeses — the short answer
Neeses, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 281 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Orangeburg County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Orangeburg County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~281
- Orangeburg County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Orangeburg County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Neeses's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Neeses's 281-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Neeses
Each reading below is measured for Neeses itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNeeses runs about 281 days between hard freezes (read from Orangeburg County, the closest normal to Neeses) — 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
MeasuredNeeses 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 Neeses is in
Neeses sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Neeses's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orangeburg County.
What Grows in Neeses
Every plant below cleared Neeses's own zone 8b and its 281-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Neeses?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Neeses
Survey cells within 31 miles of Neeses checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 136 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Neeses
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Neeses. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- W MARVIN MOOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- L W DAVISUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HOOVERS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- NEESES GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PITT STOP 48Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PIGGLY WIGGLY #116Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LIVINGSTON FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MURPHY EXPRESS 8524Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GP MART 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MCI LLC-LVSTSCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- FANNINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- ANIQ LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Neeses'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 Neeses.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Neeses
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Neeses
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Neeses, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Neeses. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Neeses
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 Neeses average
Your land is one point inside Neeses
Everything above resolves to Neeses as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Orangeburg 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 Neeses Average
Neeses Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Neeses
- ●One soil character for all of Neeses
- ●Frost dates read at Neeses's scale: Feb 23 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Neeses's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Neeses
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Neeses, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Neeses averages can't show:
We read public map data around Neeses — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Neeses average
How we know this about Neeses
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 Orangeburg 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 Neeses
When does frost risk typically end in Neeses?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Neeses typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Neeses?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Neeses 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 281 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Neeses?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Neeses sees about 281 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 17, about 246 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Neeses?
The federal record around Neeses shows 90 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Neeses?
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 Neeses's scale — its 8b band and its 281-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Neeses'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 Neeses’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Neeses's own scale — the 1,092 acres it covers and 90 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Neeses's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 90 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Neeses, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Neeses's boundary and the 1,092 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~281-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Neeses's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Neeses checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Neeses has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Orangeburg County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Neeses's 1,092 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orangeburg County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orangeburg 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 Orangeburg County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Neeses's 1,092 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Neeses you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,092 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Neeses-wide figureread your own land →