Six Mile, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Six Mile, 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 Six Mile 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 Six Mile — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Six Mile — the short answer
Six Mile, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Six Mile's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Six Mile's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Six Mile
Each reading below is measured for Six Mile itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSix Mile runs about 249 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredSix Mile 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 Six Mile is in
Six Mile sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Six Mile's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pickens County.
What Grows in Six Mile
Every plant below cleared Six Mile's own zone 8a and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Six Mile?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Six Mile
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Six Mile, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Six Mile
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Six Mile. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SIX MILE KWIK MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DURHAMS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COMMUNITY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DURHAM HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FORMER GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FORMPOLLS CORPBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SYSTEMS SPECIALTIES INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- DURHAMS CONVENIENCE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CLEAR WATER MARINE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- A T MANN GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- GRAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- SHAW INDUSTRIES GROUP INC PLANT 8TBrownfields · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Six Mile'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 Six Mile.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Six Mile
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Six Mile
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Six Mile, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Six Mile — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (252 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Six Mile
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 Six Mile average
Your land is one point inside Six Mile
Everything above resolves to Six Mile as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K acres. 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 Six Mile Average
Six Mile Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Six Mile
- ●One soil character for all of Six Mile
- ●Frost dates read at Six Mile's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Six Mile's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Six Mile
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Six Mile, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Six Mile averages can't show:
We read public map data around Six Mile — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Six Mile average
How we know this about Six Mile
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 Six Mile’s own record; 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 Six Mile
When does frost risk typically end in Six Mile?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Six Mile 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 Six Mile?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Six Mile typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Six Mile?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Six Mile sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 5, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Six Mile?
The federal record around Six Mile is a meaningful one — 356 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (252), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Six Mile?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Six Mile's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Six Mile'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 Six Mile’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Six Mile's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,304 acres it covers and 356 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Six Mile's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Six Mile's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 19 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 356 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Six Mile, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Six Mile's boundary and the 1,304 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Six Mile's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Six Milelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Six Mile's 1,304 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pickens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pickens 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 Pickens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Six Mile's 1,304 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Six Mile you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,304 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 Six Mile-wide figureread your own land →