Clarendon, 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 Clarendon, 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 Clarendon 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 Clarendon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Clarendon — the short answer
Clarendon, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 24
- Monroe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Monroe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- Monroe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Monroe County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Clarendon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clarendon's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clarendon
Each reading below is measured for Clarendon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsClarendon runs about 277 days between hard freezes (read from Monroe County, the closest normal to Clarendon) — 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
MeasuredClarendon 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 Clarendon is in
Clarendon sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clarendon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Clarendon
Every plant below cleared Clarendon's own zone 8a and its 277-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clarendon?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Clarendon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clarendon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UMHOLTZ CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- PHILLIPS 66 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- LIQUOR'S UNLIMITEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- EZ MART #4377Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- JR FOOD MART 203Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BAIRD MFG CO/ADEQBrownfields · 1100 ft
- LUCKY MART CLARENDONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- G.C. KNOLLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CLARDENDON, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CLARENDON PUBLIC SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BAIRD MANUFACTURING INCToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- 01N03W22BAC2Nitrate · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clarendon'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 Clarendon.
Total Sites
61
within ~10 miles of Clarendon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clarendon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clarendon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clarendon, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Clarendon. 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 Clarendon
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 Clarendon average
Your land is one point inside Clarendon
Everything above resolves to Clarendon as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Monroe 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 Clarendon Average
Clarendon Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Clarendon
- ●One soil character for all of Clarendon
- ●Frost dates read at Clarendon's scale: Feb 24 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clarendon's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clarendon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clarendon, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clarendon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clarendon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clarendon average
How we know this about Clarendon
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 Monroe 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 Clarendon
When does frost risk typically end in Clarendon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clarendon typically lands around Feb 24, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Clarendon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clarendon typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 277 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clarendon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clarendon sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Feb 24 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 17 to Nov 14, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clarendon?
The federal record around Clarendon shows 61 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Clarendon?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clarendon's scale — its 8a band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clarendon'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 Clarendon’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Clarendon's own scale — the 1,119 acres it covers and 61 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clarendon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 61 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clarendon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clarendon's boundary and the 1,119 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clarendon's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Clarendon has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Monroe County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clarendon's 1,119 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clarendon's 1,119 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clarendon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,119 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Clarendon-wide figureread your own land →
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