Williams, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Williams, 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 Williams 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 Williams — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Williams — the short answer
Williams, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 542 acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 542 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 Williams's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Williams's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Williams
Each reading below is measured for Williams itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWilliams runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Colleton County, the closest normal to Williams) — 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
MeasuredWilliams 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 Williams is in
Williams sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Williams's own centroid rather than borrowed from Colleton County.
What Grows in Williams
Every plant below cleared Williams'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 Williams?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Williams
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Williams. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- O'QUINNS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- WARREN BUILDING SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LINDERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- RAMSEYS UNION 76Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- HARVEST TIME INVESTMENT CORP DBA S&G GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- FAYE QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- CARTERS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- QUICK STORE 4Underground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- SHULERS CANDY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- MORRIS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- GRAHAMS GAS & CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Williams'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 Williams.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Williams
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Williams
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Williams, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Williams — Underground Storage Tanks (25 sites) and Nitrate (10 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Williams
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 Williams average
Your land is one point inside Williams
Everything above resolves to Williams as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 542 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Colleton 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 Williams Average
Williams Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Williams
- ●One soil character for all of Williams
- ●Frost dates read at Williams's scale: Feb 19 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Williams's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Williams
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Williams, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Williams averages can't show:
We read public map data around Williams — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Williams average
How we know this about Williams
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 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 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 Williams
When does frost risk typically end in Williams?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Williams 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 Williams?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Williams 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 Williams?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Williams 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 Williams?
The federal record around Williams is light — 36 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Williams?
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 Williams's scale — its 8b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Williams'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 Williams’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Williams's own scale — the 542 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Williams's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Williams, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Williams's boundary and the 542 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 Williams's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Williams 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 Williams's 542 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 Williams's 542 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Williams you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 542 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 Williams-wide figureread your own land →