Peak, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Peak, 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 Peak 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 Peak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Peak — the short answer
Peak, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 220 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- Newberry County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Newberry County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- Newberry County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 220 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 Newberry County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Peak's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peak's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Peak
Each reading below is measured for Peak itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPeak runs about 252 days between hard freezes (read from Newberry County, the closest normal to Peak) — 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
MeasuredPeak 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 Peak is in
Peak sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Peak's own centroid rather than borrowed from Newberry County.
What Grows in Peak
Every plant below cleared Peak's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Peak?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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.
Documented around Peak
Survey cells within 31 miles of Peak checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 92 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Peak
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Peak. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARTHA S HAMMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WICKERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SANTEE COOPER VC SUMMER EQUIPMENT STORAGEBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- PARR GTBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- DOOLITTLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- YARBOROUGH BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- GILL 5AM TO 10 PMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- V C SUMMER NUCLEAR STA ENVIRON LABBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- CONSTRUCTION SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- CORNER PANTRY 132Underground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- VIRGIL C SUMMER NUCLEAR STATIONBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- RAINBOW GAS GARDEN 12Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Peak'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 Peak.
Total Sites
123
within ~10 miles of Peak
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Peak
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Peak
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Peak, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 80 sites within ~10 miles of Peak. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Peak
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 Peak average
Your land is one point inside Peak
Everything above resolves to Peak as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 220 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Newberry 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 Peak Average
Peak Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Peak
- ●One soil character for all of Peak
- ●Frost dates read at Peak's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peak's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Peak
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peak, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peak averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peak average
How we know this about Peak
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 Newberry 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 Peak
When does frost risk typically end in Peak?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peak typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Peak?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Peak typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Peak?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peak sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 8, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peak?
The federal record around Peak shows 123 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Peak?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Peak's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peak'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 Peak’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Peak's own scale — the 220 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peak's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Peak, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Peak's boundary and the 220 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Peak's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Peak checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Peak has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Newberry County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Peak's 220 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Newberry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Newberry 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 Newberry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Peak's 220 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Peak you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 220 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Peak-wide figureread your own land →