Parker, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Parker, 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 Parker 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 Parker — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Parker — the short answer
Parker, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Greenville County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Greenville County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- Greenville County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Greenville County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Parker's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Parker's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Parker
Each reading below is measured for Parker itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsParker runs about 262 days between hard freezes (read from Greenville County, the closest normal to Parker) — 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
MeasuredParker 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 Parker is in
Parker sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Parker's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greenville County.
What Grows in Parker
Every plant below cleared Parker's own zone 8a and its 262-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Parker?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Parker
Survey cells within 31 miles of Parker checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 38 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Parker
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Parker. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CARABO CAPITAL SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WHITE HORSE EXXON 43982Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- QUIKTRIP 1146Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- COUNTY WIDE BODY WORKSBrownfields · 950 ft
- STEWART PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HUGHESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ADAMS AUTO PARTSSuperfund · 1100 ft
- UST - UNKNOWN 14706Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #SCGRE1B01Brownfields · 1300 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6208Brownfields · 1300 ft
- SAMAY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SELOX INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Parker'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 Parker.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Parker
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Parker
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Parker, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 122 sites within ~10 miles of Parker. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Parker
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 Parker average
Your land is one point inside Parker
Everything above resolves to Parker as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Greenville 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 Parker Average
Parker Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Parker
- ●One soil character for all of Parker
- ●Frost dates read at Parker's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Parker's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Parker
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Parker, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Parker averages can't show:
We read public map data around Parker — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Parker average
How we know this about Parker
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 Greenville 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 Parker
When does frost risk typically end in Parker?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Parker typically lands around Mar 11, 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 Apr 1.
When is the first frost in Parker?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Parker typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 262 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Parker?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Parker sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 14, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Parker?
The federal record around Parker is a meaningful one — 1,827 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,055), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Parker?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Parker's scale — its 8a band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Parker'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 Parker’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Parker's own scale — the 4,365 acres it covers and 1,827 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Parker's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,827 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Parker, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Parker's boundary and the 4,365 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Parker's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Parker checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Parker has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Greenville County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Parker's 4,365 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greenville County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greenville 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 Greenville County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Parker's 4,365 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Parker you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,365 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Parker-wide figureread your own land →