Austin, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Austin, 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 Austin 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 Austin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Austin — the short answer
Austin, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- 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
- ~257
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Austin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Austin's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Austin
Each reading below is measured for Austin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAustin runs about 257 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
MeasuredAustin 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 Austin is in
Austin sits in the Ouachita Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Austin's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lonoke County is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Austin
Every plant below cleared Austin's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Austin?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Austin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Austin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 04N09W05CBB1Nitrate · 2200 ft
- GARDEN PLACE GROCERY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GUERDON INDUSTRIES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- JOB 1668 (CABOT)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BIG RED #148Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- D & M HOLDING COMPANY, INC.Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- D & M HOLDING COMPANY, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- JDR LOGISTICS, LLCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- 04N09W07ACC1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- PROFESSIONAL COATINGS INC.Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- 04N09W07BDD1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- WHITLEY PAINT & BODYBrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Austin'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 Austin.
Total Sites
189
within ~10 miles of Austin
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Austin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Austin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Austin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Austin — PFAS (5 sites) and Nitrate (52 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Austin
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 Austin average
Your land is one point inside Austin
Everything above resolves to Austin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 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 Austin Average
Austin Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Austin
- ●One soil character for all of Austin
- ●Frost dates read at Austin's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Austin's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Austin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Austin, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Austin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Austin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Austin average
How we know this about Austin
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 Austin’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 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 Austin
When does frost risk typically end in Austin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Austin typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Austin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Austin 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 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Austin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Austin sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 6, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Austin?
The federal record around Austin shows 189 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (100), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Austin?
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 Austin's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Austin'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 Austin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Austin's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,981 acres it covers and 189 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Austin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Austin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 20 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 189 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Austin, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Austin's boundary and the 1,981 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Austin sits in the Ouachita Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Austin's 1,981 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lonoke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lonoke County
- The growing challenges every Arkansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arkansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Lonoke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Austin's 1,981 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Austin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,981 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Austin-wide figureread your own land →
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