Casa, 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 Casa, 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 Casa 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 Casa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Casa — the short answer
Casa, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 716 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 716 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 Casa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Casa's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Casa
Each reading below is measured for Casa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCasa runs about 251 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
MeasuredCasa 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 Casa is in
Casa sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Casa's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Perry County is mostly Ouachita Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Casa
Every plant below cleared Casa's own zone 8a and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Casa?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Casa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Casa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WELLS QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- AHTD ROW ACQ JOB R80067 TRACTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AHTD JOB #R80025, TRACT 45Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AHTD ROW ACQ JOB R80025 TRACTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PERRY - CASA SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 04N19W06DBA1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- CASA SUPERETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 05N20W12CAC1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- 06N20W23CAD2Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 06N20W23CAD1Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 05N19W07CBD1Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 05N20W12DDA1Nitrate · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Casa'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 Casa.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Casa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Casa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Casa, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 272 sites within ~10 miles of Casa. 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 Casa
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 Casa average
Your land is one point inside Casa
Everything above resolves to Casa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 716 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 Casa Average
Casa Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Casa
- ●One soil character for all of Casa
- ●Frost dates read at Casa's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Casa's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Casa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Casa, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Casa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Casa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Casa average
How we know this about Casa
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 Casa’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 Casa
When does frost risk typically end in Casa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Casa typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Casa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Casa typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Casa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Casa sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 3, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Casa?
The federal record around Casa is a meaningful one — 293 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (272), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Casa?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Casa's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Casa'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 Casa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Casa's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 716 acres it covers and 293 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Casa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Casa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 17 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 293 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Casa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Casa's boundary and the 716 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Casa sits in the Arkansas Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Casa's 716 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perry 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 Perry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Casa's 716 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Casa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 716 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 Casa-wide figureread your own land →