Charleston, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Charleston, 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 Charleston 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 Charleston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Charleston — the short answer
Charleston, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- 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 Charleston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Charleston's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Charleston
Each reading below is measured for Charleston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCharleston runs about 252 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
MeasuredCharleston 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 Charleston is in
Charleston sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Charleston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Charleston
Every plant below cleared Charleston's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Charleston?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Charleston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Charleston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUG CHEVROLET COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CHARLESTON PUBLIC SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HARP'S FOOD STORE # 701Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- JACKIE DON'S/O & B QUICKSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE #3602Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- QUALITY AUTO PARTS CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PRECIOUS NAILSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CHARLESTON SUPERSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHARLESTON CITY YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BURT STEEL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CORRELL INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Charleston'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 Charleston.
Total Sites
77
within ~10 miles of Charleston
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Charleston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Charleston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Charleston, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Charleston. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Charleston
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 Charleston average
Your land is one point inside Charleston
Everything above resolves to Charleston 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 Charleston Average
Charleston Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Charleston
- ●One soil character for all of Charleston
- ●Frost dates read at Charleston's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Charleston's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Charleston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Charleston, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Charleston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Charleston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Charleston average
How we know this about Charleston
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 Charleston’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 Charleston
When does frost risk typically end in Charleston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Charleston 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 Charleston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Charleston typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Charleston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Charleston sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 4, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Charleston?
The federal record around Charleston shows 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), 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 Charleston?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Charleston's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Charleston'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 Charleston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Charleston's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,454 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Charleston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Charleston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 18 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Charleston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Charleston's boundary and the 2,454 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Charleston's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Charleston's 2,454 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Charleston's 2,454 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Charleston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,454 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 Charleston-wide figureread your own land →
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Growing region
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