Parksville, 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.
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 Parksville, 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 Parksville 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 Parksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Parksville — the short answer
Parksville, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 466 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- McCormick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- McCormick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- McCormick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 466 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 McCormick County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Parksville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Parksville's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Parksville
Each reading below is measured for Parksville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsParksville runs about 258 days between hard freezes (read from McCormick County, the closest normal to Parksville) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredParksville 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 Parksville is in
Parksville sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Parksville's own centroid rather than borrowed from McCormick County.
What Grows in Parksville
Every plant below cleared Parksville's own zone 8b and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Parksville?
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 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 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Parksville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Parksville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MEYERS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- GOLD MINE TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MYERS BAIT & TACKLE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- PERCIVALS GROUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- SEIGLERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PLUM BRANCH WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FUN WAY INDUSTRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- HAMILTON BRANCH STATE RECREATION AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- LLOYD CANNADYS PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- MCK- 58Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- SCARNG CLARKS HILL TRAINING SITEBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- BUSSEYS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Parksville'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 Parksville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Parksville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Parksville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Parksville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Parksville. 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 Parksville
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 Parksville average
Your land is one point inside Parksville
Everything above resolves to Parksville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 466 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from McCormick 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 Parksville Average
Parksville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Parksville
- ●One soil character for all of Parksville
- ●Frost dates read at Parksville's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Parksville's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Parksville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Parksville, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Parksville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Parksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Parksville average
How we know this about Parksville
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 McCormick 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 Parksville
When does frost risk typically end in Parksville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Parksville 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 Parksville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Parksville typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Parksville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Parksville sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 10, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Parksville?
The federal record around Parksville is a meaningful one — 96 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), 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 Parksville?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Parksville's scale — its 8b band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Parksville'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 Parksville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Parksville's own scale — the 466 acres it covers and 96 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Parksville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 96 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Parksville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Parksville's boundary and the 466 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Parksville's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Parksville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom McCormick County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Parksville's 466 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McCormick County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McCormick 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 McCormick County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Parksville's 466 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Parksville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 466 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 Parksville-wide figureread your own land →
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