Caddo Gap, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Caddo Gap, 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 Caddo Gap 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 Caddo Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Caddo Gap — the short answer
Caddo Gap, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 255 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 255 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 Caddo Gap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Caddo Gap's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Caddo Gap
Each reading below is measured for Caddo Gap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCaddo Gap runs about 239 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
MeasuredCaddo Gap 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 Caddo Gap is in
Caddo Gap sits in the Ouachita Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Caddo Gap's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Caddo Gap
Every plant below cleared Caddo Gap's own zone 8a and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Caddo Gap?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Caddo Gap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Caddo Gap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CADDO GAP MERCANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CADDO GAP MERCHANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- ONOPTA, CAROLYNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 04S25W13ADA1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- CADDO HILLS SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DAVID'S ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- GS ROOFING PRODUCTS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HORN LUMBER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- JUNCTION GULF STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- CHARLES PRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- LIGON OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- NORMAN TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Caddo Gap'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 Caddo Gap.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Caddo Gap
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Caddo Gap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Caddo Gap
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Caddo Gap, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 61 sites within ~10 miles of Caddo Gap. 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 Caddo Gap
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 Caddo Gap average
Your land is one point inside Caddo Gap
Everything above resolves to Caddo Gap as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 255 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 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 Caddo Gap Average
Caddo Gap Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Caddo Gap
- ●One soil character for all of Caddo Gap
- ●Frost dates read at Caddo Gap's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Caddo Gap's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Caddo Gap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Caddo Gap, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Caddo Gap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Caddo Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Caddo Gap average
How we know this about Caddo Gap
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 Caddo Gap’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 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 Caddo Gap
When does frost risk typically end in Caddo Gap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Caddo Gap typically lands around Mar 18, 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 Apr 8.
When is the first frost in Caddo Gap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Caddo Gap typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Caddo Gap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Caddo Gap sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 29, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Caddo Gap?
The federal record around Caddo Gap shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Caddo Gap?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Caddo Gap's scale — its 8a band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Caddo Gap'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 Caddo Gap’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Caddo Gap's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 255 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Caddo Gap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Caddo Gap's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 12 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Caddo Gap, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Caddo Gap's boundary and the 255 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Caddo Gap's own centroid, the Ouachita MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Caddo Gap's 255 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Caddo Gap's 255 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Caddo Gap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 255 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Caddo Gap-wide figureread your own land →
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