Pawleys Island, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Pawleys Island, 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 Pawleys Island 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 Pawleys Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pawleys Island — the short answer
Pawleys Island, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 449 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Georgetown County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Georgetown County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Georgetown County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 449 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 Georgetown County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Pawleys Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pawleys Island's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pawleys Island
Each reading below is measured for Pawleys Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPawleys Island runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Georgetown County, the closest normal to Pawleys Island) — 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
MeasuredPawleys Island 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 Pawleys Island is in
Pawleys Island sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pawleys Island's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Georgetown County is mostly Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pawleys Island
Every plant below cleared Pawleys Island's own zone 8b and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pawleys Island?
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 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 9 — 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 Pawleys Island
Survey cells within 31 miles of Pawleys Island checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 90 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pawleys Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pawleys Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GEO- 21Nitrate · 1700 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 7016Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- PUBLIX SUPERMARKET 1478 PAWLEYS ISLAND PLAZABrownfields · 0.7 mi
- TJ MAXX STORE# 1570Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- PAWLEYS ISLAND EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MARLOWES GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PAWLEYS ISLAND SUPPLIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PAWLEYS PAVILIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CIRCLE K 2723058Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CIRCLE K 8098Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SPEEDWAY 4593Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SPEEDWAY 4593Brownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pawleys Island'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 Pawleys Island.
Total Sites
104
within ~10 miles of Pawleys Island
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
27 brownfield sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pawleys Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pawleys Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pawleys Island, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Pawleys Island. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Pawleys Island
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 Pawleys Island average
Your land is one point inside Pawleys Island
Everything above resolves to Pawleys Island as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 449 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Georgetown 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 Pawleys Island Average
Pawleys Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pawleys Island
- ●One soil character for all of Pawleys Island
- ●Frost dates read at Pawleys Island's scale: Feb 23 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pawleys Island's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pawleys Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pawleys Island, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pawleys Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pawleys Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pawleys Island average
How we know this about Pawleys Island
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 Georgetown 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 Pawleys Island
When does frost risk typically end in Pawleys Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pawleys Island 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 Pawleys Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pawleys Island typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pawleys Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pawleys Island sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 25, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pawleys Island?
The federal record around Pawleys Island shows 104 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Pawleys Island?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pawleys Island's scale — its 8b band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pawleys Island'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 Pawleys Island’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pawleys Island's own scale — the 449 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pawleys Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pawleys Island, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pawleys Island's boundary and the 449 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pawleys Island sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Pawleys Island checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pawleys Island has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Georgetown County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pawleys Island's 449 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Georgetown County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Georgetown 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 Georgetown County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pawleys Island's 449 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pawleys Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 449 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Pawleys Island-wide figureread your own land →