Walterboro, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Walterboro, 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 Walterboro 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 Walterboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Walterboro — the short answer
Walterboro, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- Colleton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Colleton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Colleton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Colleton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Walterboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Walterboro's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Walterboro
Each reading below is measured for Walterboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWalterboro runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Colleton County, the closest normal to Walterboro) — 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
MeasuredWalterboro 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 Walterboro is in
Walterboro sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Walterboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Colleton County.
What Grows in Walterboro
Every plant below cleared Walterboro's own zone 8b and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Walterboro?
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 Jan 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Walterboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Walterboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COLLETON COUNTY JAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PORT UNIT 244Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- COL- 30Nitrate · 1900 ft
- JACK'S TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FORMER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- UST - UNKNOWN 02594Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SC672Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WALTERBORO CITY OF (1510004)PFAS · 2200 ft
- HOWARD E THOMAS INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 2300 ft
- THOMAS AMOCO IUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GULF BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BUSY CORNER 5Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Walterboro'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 Walterboro.
Total Sites
223
within ~10 miles of Walterboro
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Walterboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Walterboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Walterboro, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 141 sites within ~10 miles of Walterboro. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Walterboro
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 Walterboro average
Your land is one point inside Walterboro
Everything above resolves to Walterboro as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Colleton County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Walterboro Average
Walterboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Walterboro
- ●One soil character for all of Walterboro
- ●Frost dates read at Walterboro's scale: Feb 19 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Walterboro's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Walterboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Walterboro, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Walterboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Walterboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Walterboro average
How we know this about Walterboro
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Colleton 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Walterboro
When does frost risk typically end in Walterboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Walterboro typically lands around Feb 19, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Walterboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Walterboro typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Walterboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Walterboro sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 23, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Walterboro?
The federal record around Walterboro is a meaningful one — 223 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (141), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Walterboro?
From about Nov 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Walterboro's scale — its 8b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Walterboro'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 Walterboro’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Walterboro's own scale — the 4,454 acres it covers and 223 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Walterboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 223 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Walterboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Walterboro's boundary and the 4,454 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Walterboro's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Walterboro has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Colleton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Walterboro's 4,454 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Colleton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Colleton 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 Colleton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Walterboro's 4,454 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Walterboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,454 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Walterboro-wide figureread your own land →