Pinewood, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Pinewood, 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 Pinewood 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 Pinewood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pinewood — the short answer
Pinewood, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 685 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 685 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 Sumter County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Pinewood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pinewood's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pinewood
Each reading below is measured for Pinewood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPinewood runs about 265 days between hard freezes (read from Sumter County, the closest normal to Pinewood) — 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
MeasuredPinewood 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 Pinewood is in
Pinewood sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pinewood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sumter County.
What Grows in Pinewood
Every plant below cleared Pinewood's own zone 8b and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pinewood?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (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 Pinewood
Survey cells within 31 miles of Pinewood checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 123 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pinewood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pinewood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PINEWOOD GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- DUBOSE S SUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- YOUNGS 3644Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- TEN DALE FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- PINELAND FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SU- 151BNitrate · 2400 ft
- PINEWOOD TELEPHONE EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BLACKS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SMITHS GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MCINTOSH BROTHERS FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- PINEWOOD LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pinewood'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 Pinewood.
Total Sites
135
within ~10 miles of Pinewood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pinewood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pinewood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pinewood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pinewood — Toxics Release Inventory (16 sites) and Nitrate (44 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pinewood
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 Pinewood average
Your land is one point inside Pinewood
Everything above resolves to Pinewood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 685 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sumter 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 Pinewood Average
Pinewood Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pinewood
- ●One soil character for all of Pinewood
- ●Frost dates read at Pinewood's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pinewood's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pinewood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pinewood, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pinewood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pinewood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pinewood average
How we know this about Pinewood
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 Sumter 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 Pinewood
When does frost risk typically end in Pinewood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pinewood typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Pinewood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pinewood 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 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pinewood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pinewood sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 14, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pinewood?
The federal record around Pinewood is a meaningful one — 135 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Pinewood?
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 Pinewood's scale — its 8b band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pinewood'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 Pinewood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pinewood's own scale — the 685 acres it covers and 135 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pinewood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 135 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pinewood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pinewood's boundary and the 685 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pinewood's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Pinewood checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pinewood has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sumter County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pinewood's 685 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sumter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sumter 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 Sumter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pinewood's 685 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pinewood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 685 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Pinewood-wide figureread your own land →
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