Slater-Marietta, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Slater-Marietta, 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 Slater-Marietta 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 Slater-Marietta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Slater-Marietta — the short answer
Slater-Marietta, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 3K 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Slater-Marietta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Slater-Marietta's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Slater-Marietta
Each reading below is measured for Slater-Marietta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSlater-Marietta runs about 250 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
MeasuredSlater-Marietta 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 Slater-Marietta is in
Slater-Marietta sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Slater-Marietta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greenville County.
What Grows in Slater-Marietta
Every plant below cleared Slater-Marietta's own zone 8a and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Slater-Marietta?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 20 — 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 Slater-Marietta
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Slater-Marietta, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Slater-Marietta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Slater-Marietta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J P STEVENS & CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HANDEE MART 16Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR 7646Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- F-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- POSEIDON ADVANCED MATERIALS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- HAWKE TRAILERS INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- PARTH INC OF THE CAROLINASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SPINX 148Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- NIX BROTHERS HYDRAULIC INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- WARDS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MERRILLS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- STOOKSBURY INDUSTRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Slater-Marietta'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 Slater-Marietta.
Total Sites
187
within ~10 miles of Slater-Marietta
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Slater-Marietta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Slater-Marietta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Slater-Marietta, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Slater-Marietta. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Slater-Marietta
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 Slater-Marietta average
Your land is one point inside Slater-Marietta
Everything above resolves to Slater-Marietta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Slater-Marietta Average
Slater-Marietta Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Slater-Marietta
- ●One soil character for all of Slater-Marietta
- ●Frost dates read at Slater-Marietta's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Slater-Marietta's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Slater-Marietta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Slater-Marietta, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Slater-Marietta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Slater-Marietta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Slater-Marietta average
How we know this about Slater-Marietta
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 Slater-Marietta’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 Slater-Marietta
When does frost risk typically end in Slater-Marietta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Slater-Marietta 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 Slater-Marietta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Slater-Marietta typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Slater-Marietta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Slater-Marietta sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 6, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Slater-Marietta?
The federal record around Slater-Marietta is a meaningful one — 187 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (111), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Slater-Marietta?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Slater-Marietta's scale — its 8a band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Slater-Marietta'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 Slater-Marietta’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Slater-Marietta's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,757 acres it covers and 187 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Slater-Marietta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Slater-Marietta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 20 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 187 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Slater-Marietta, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Slater-Marietta's boundary and the 2,757 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Slater-Marietta's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Slater-Mariettalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Slater-Marietta's 2,757 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greenville County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greenville 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 Greenville County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Slater-Marietta's 2,757 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Slater-Marietta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,757 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Slater-Marietta-wide figureread your own land →