Scranton, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Scranton, 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 Scranton 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 Scranton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Scranton — the short answer
Scranton, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 507 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- Florence County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Florence County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- Florence County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 507 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 Florence County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Scranton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scranton's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scranton
Each reading below is measured for Scranton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsScranton runs about 269 days between hard freezes (read from Florence County, the closest normal to Scranton) — 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
MeasuredScranton 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 Scranton is in
Scranton sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Scranton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Florence County.
What Grows in Scranton
Every plant below cleared Scranton's own zone 8b and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scranton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Scranton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Scranton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 109 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Scranton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scranton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COMMUNITY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- YOUNGS 3655Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SCRANTON FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WILSONS EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DRIGGERS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SCRANTON TELEPHONE EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- W LEE FLOWERS AND COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SCRANTON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- M&F FLOYD GROCERY & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FORMER AMERICAN OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- MURPHY EXPRESS 8681Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- LAKE CITY SECTION SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scranton'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 Scranton.
Total Sites
141
within ~10 miles of Scranton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scranton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scranton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scranton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 113 sites within ~10 miles of Scranton. 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 Scranton
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 Scranton average
Your land is one point inside Scranton
Everything above resolves to Scranton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 507 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Florence 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 Scranton Average
Scranton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Scranton
- ●One soil character for all of Scranton
- ●Frost dates read at Scranton's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scranton's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scranton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scranton, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scranton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scranton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scranton average
How we know this about Scranton
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 Florence 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 Scranton
When does frost risk typically end in Scranton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scranton typically lands around Mar 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Scranton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scranton typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scranton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scranton sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 15, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scranton?
The federal record around Scranton shows 141 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (113), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Scranton?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Scranton's scale — its 8b band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scranton'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 Scranton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Scranton's own scale — the 507 acres it covers and 141 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scranton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 141 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scranton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scranton's boundary and the 507 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scranton's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Scranton checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Scranton has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Florence County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Scranton's 507 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Florence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Florence 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 Florence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scranton's 507 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scranton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 507 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 Scranton-wide figureread your own land →