Buckner, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Buckner, 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 Buckner 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 Buckner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Buckner — the short answer
Buckner, Arkansas: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 753 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- Lafayette County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- Lafayette County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Lafayette County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 753 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 Lafayette County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Buckner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buckner's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buckner
Each reading below is measured for Buckner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBuckner runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Lafayette County, the closest normal to Buckner) — 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
MeasuredBuckner 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 Buckner is in
Buckner sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Buckner's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lafayette County.
What Grows in Buckner
Every plant below cleared Buckner's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Buckner?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (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. 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 Buckner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buckner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- L. D. PERKISON GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- VINES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- HAMILTON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- T.C.B. PARTNERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HUDSON CHEVROLET COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- C & C PACKING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 16S23W10DCA1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- SOUTHERN AMUMINUM MANUFACTURING ACQUISITION, INC.Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- DIXIE MART #22Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- JIMMY'S DRIVE-INUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- ALAN WHITE COMPANYBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- EZ MART #4212Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buckner'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 Buckner.
Total Sites
104
within ~10 miles of Buckner
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buckner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buckner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buckner, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Buckner — Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (66 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Buckner
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 Buckner average
Your land is one point inside Buckner
Everything above resolves to Buckner as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 753 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lafayette 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 Buckner Average
Buckner Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Buckner
- ●One soil character for all of Buckner
- ●Frost dates read at Buckner's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buckner's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buckner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buckner, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buckner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buckner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buckner average
How we know this about Buckner
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 Lafayette 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 Buckner
When does frost risk typically end in Buckner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buckner typically lands around Mar 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Buckner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buckner 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 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buckner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buckner sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 6, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buckner?
The federal record around Buckner shows 104 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Buckner?
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 Buckner's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buckner'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 Buckner’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Buckner's own scale — the 753 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buckner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buckner, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buckner's boundary and the 753 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Buckner's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Buckner has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lafayette County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Buckner's 753 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lafayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lafayette 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 Lafayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buckner's 753 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buckner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 753 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 Buckner-wide figureread your own land →
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