North Hartsville, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in North Hartsville, 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 North Hartsville 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 North Hartsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Hartsville — the short answer
North Hartsville, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Darlington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Darlington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- Darlington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Darlington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is North Hartsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Hartsville's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Hartsville
Each reading below is measured for North Hartsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNorth Hartsville runs about 261 days between hard freezes (read from Darlington County, the closest normal to North Hartsville) — 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
MeasuredNorth Hartsville 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 North Hartsville is in
North Hartsville sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Hartsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Darlington County.
What Grows in North Hartsville
Every plant below cleared North Hartsville's own zone 8a and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Hartsville?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 North Hartsville
Survey cells within 31 miles of North Hartsville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 87 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Hartsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Hartsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DAWKINS CONCRETE PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DEANS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HIXSONS PAINT & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR 4656Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- SAV WAY 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HARTSVILLE SECTION SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HARTSVILLE CITY OF (SC1610003)PFAS · 0.7 mi
- MARKETTE 9Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- AGRIUM US INCSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- AGRIUM US INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- AGRIUM US INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- WEATHERFORD TRANSIT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Hartsville'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 North Hartsville.
Total Sites
184
within ~10 miles of North Hartsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Hartsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Hartsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Hartsville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 129 sites within ~10 miles of North Hartsville. 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 North Hartsville
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 North Hartsville average
Your land is one point inside North Hartsville
Everything above resolves to North Hartsville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Darlington 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 North Hartsville Average
North Hartsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across North Hartsville
- ●One soil character for all of North Hartsville
- ●Frost dates read at North Hartsville's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Hartsville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Hartsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Hartsville, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Hartsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Hartsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Hartsville average
How we know this about North Hartsville
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 Darlington 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 North Hartsville
When does frost risk typically end in North Hartsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Hartsville typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in North Hartsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Hartsville typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Hartsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Hartsville sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 11, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Hartsville?
The federal record around North Hartsville is a meaningful one — 184 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (129), 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 North Hartsville?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Hartsville's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Hartsville'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 North Hartsville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Hartsville's own scale — the 2,899 acres it covers and 184 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Hartsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 184 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Hartsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Hartsville's boundary and the 2,899 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Hartsville's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around North Hartsville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — North Hartsville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Darlington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Hartsville's 2,899 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Darlington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Darlington 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 Darlington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Hartsville's 2,899 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Hartsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,899 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 North Hartsville-wide figureread your own land →
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