Society Hill, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Society Hill, 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 Society Hill 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 Society Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Society Hill — the short answer
Society Hill, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Darlington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Darlington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- Darlington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Darlington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Society Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Society Hill's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Society Hill
Each reading below is measured for Society Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSociety Hill runs about 261 days between hard freezes (read from Darlington County, the closest normal to Society Hill) — 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
MeasuredSociety Hill 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 Society Hill is in
Society Hill sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Society Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Darlington County.
What Grows in Society Hill
Every plant below cleared Society Hill's own zone 8b and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Society Hill?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 Society Hill
Survey cells within 31 miles of Society Hill checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 87 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Society Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Society Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOORES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- SOCIETY HILL RSUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- DAR- 1Nitrate · 500 ft
- HORACE DIXON TEXACO GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- JEROME JOHNSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- COPE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- R J GRIGGS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MARUTI SUNAND INC DBA CORNER CUPBROAD #8Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- SOCIETY HILL FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- POWER PLANT MAINTENANCE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HILLS BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DARLINGTON COUNTY WATER AUTHORITYBrownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Society Hill'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 Society Hill.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Society Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Society Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Society Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Society Hill — Superfund (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Society Hill
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 Society Hill average
Your land is one point inside Society Hill
Everything above resolves to Society Hill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Darlington 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 Society Hill Average
Society Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Society Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Society Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Society Hill's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Society Hill's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Society Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Society Hill, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Society Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Society Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Society Hill average
How we know this about Society Hill
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 Darlington 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 Society Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Society Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Society Hill typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Society Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Society Hill typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Society Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Society Hill sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 11, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Society Hill?
The federal record around Society Hill is a meaningful one — 68 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (39), 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 Society Hill?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Society Hill's scale — its 8b band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Society Hill'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 Society Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Society Hill's own scale — the 1,375 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Society Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Society Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Society Hill's boundary and the 1,375 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Society Hill's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Society Hill checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Society Hill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Darlington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Society Hill's 1,375 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Darlington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Darlington 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 Darlington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Society Hill's 1,375 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Society Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,375 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 Society Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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