Windsor, 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.
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 Windsor, 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 Windsor 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 Windsor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Windsor — the short answer
Windsor, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 559 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- Aiken County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Aiken County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- Aiken County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 559 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 Aiken County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Windsor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Windsor's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Windsor
Each reading below is measured for Windsor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWindsor runs about 269 days between hard freezes (read from Aiken County, the closest normal to Windsor) — 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
MeasuredWindsor 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 Windsor is in
Windsor sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Windsor's own centroid rather than borrowed from Aiken County.
What Grows in Windsor
Every plant below cleared Windsor's own zone 8b and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Windsor?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Windsor
Survey cells within 31 miles of Windsor checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 145 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Windsor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Windsor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMITHS GENERAL MERCHANDISINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WINDSOR GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HOUSE A PARTNERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- AK- 811Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- CHAPMANS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- AIKEN STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- AK- 821Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- SMITH PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- ADMIRAL DIV OF MAGIC CHEFUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- FRED MUNDYS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- WHECOBrownfields · 6.5 mi
- AK- 275Nitrate · 6.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Windsor'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 Windsor.
Total Sites
81
within ~10 miles of Windsor
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Windsor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Windsor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Windsor, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Windsor. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Windsor
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 Windsor average
Your land is one point inside Windsor
Everything above resolves to Windsor as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 559 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Aiken 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 Windsor Average
Windsor Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Windsor
- ●One soil character for all of Windsor
- ●Frost dates read at Windsor's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Windsor's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Windsor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Windsor, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Windsor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Windsor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Windsor average
How we know this about Windsor
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 Aiken 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 Windsor
When does frost risk typically end in Windsor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Windsor typically lands around Mar 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Windsor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Windsor typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Windsor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Windsor sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 15, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Windsor?
The federal record around Windsor is a meaningful one — 81 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), 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 Windsor?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Windsor's scale — its 8b band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Windsor'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 Windsor’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Windsor's own scale — the 559 acres it covers and 81 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Windsor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 81 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Windsor, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Windsor's boundary and the 559 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Windsor's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Windsor checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Windsor has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Aiken County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Windsor's 559 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Aiken County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Aiken 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 Aiken County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Windsor's 559 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Windsor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 559 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 Windsor-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Carolina
Wider growing context
What grows across South CarolinaWindsor sits outside our named growing regions, so South Carolina as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides