Ravenel, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ravenel, 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 Ravenel 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 Ravenel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ravenel — the short answer
Ravenel, South Carolina: USDA zone 9a, about 320 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 1
- Charleston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Charleston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~320
- Charleston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Charleston County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Ravenel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ravenel's 320-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ravenel
Each reading below is measured for Ravenel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRavenel runs about 320 days between hard freezes (read from Charleston County, the closest normal to Ravenel) — 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
MeasuredRavenel sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Ravenel is in
Ravenel sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ravenel's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Charleston County is mostly Southern Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ravenel
Every plant below cleared Ravenel's own zone 9a and its 320-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ravenel?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Ravenel
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ravenel checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 169 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ravenel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ravenel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FUEL ZONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- RAVENEL VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ST PAULS FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RAVENEL QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- RAVENEL EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MARCHANT CHEVROLET GEOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MARCHANT CHEVROLET GEOBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- BIG DAVE'S FIREWORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MOODY GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- RAVENEL BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BLUE WATER 25Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CIRCLE K 2720881Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ravenel'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 Ravenel.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ravenel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ravenel
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Ravenel
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 Ravenel average
Your land is one point inside Ravenel
Everything above resolves to Ravenel as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Charleston 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 Ravenel Average
Ravenel Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Ravenel
- ●One soil character for all of Ravenel
- ●Frost dates read at Ravenel's scale: Feb 1 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ravenel's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ravenel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ravenel, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ravenel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ravenel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ravenel average
How we know this about Ravenel
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 Charleston 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 Ravenel
When does frost risk typically end in Ravenel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ravenel typically lands around Feb 1, 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 Feb 22.
When is the first frost in Ravenel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ravenel typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 320 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ravenel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ravenel sees about 320 frost-free days — roughly Feb 1 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 22 to Dec 4, about 285 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ravenel?
The federal record around Ravenel is a meaningful one — 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ravenel?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ravenel's scale — its 9a band and its 320-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ravenel'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 Ravenel’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ravenel's own scale — the 8,433 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ravenel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ravenel, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ravenel's boundary and the 8,433 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~320-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ravenel sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ravenel checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ravenel has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Charleston County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ravenel's 8,433 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Charleston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Charleston 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 Charleston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ravenel's 8,433 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ravenel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,433 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ravenel-wide figureread your own land →