Conway, 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 Conway, 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 Conway 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 Conway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Conway — the short answer
Conway, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 30K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 30K 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 Conway's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Conway's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Conway
Each reading below is measured for Conway itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredConway runs about 255 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
MeasuredConway 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 Conway is in
Conway sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Conway's own centroid rather than borrowed from Faulkner County.
What Grows in Conway
Every plant below cleared Conway's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Conway?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Conway
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Conway. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CENTRAL MEAT MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BEARS DENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BEARS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PHYSICAL PLANT UCAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CENTRAL ARKANSAS RADIATION THERAPY INSTITUTEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- KUM & GO #158Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSASBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CONWAY REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KROGER #0625-25Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- BELL BROTHER OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- KROGER FUEL CENTER Y625Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 286 GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Conway'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 Conway.
Total Sites
274
within ~10 miles of Conway
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Conway
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Conway
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Conway, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Conway. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Conway
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 Conway average
Your land is one point inside Conway
Everything above resolves to Conway as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 30K 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 Conway Average
Conway Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Conway
- ●One soil character for all of Conway
- ●Frost dates read at Conway's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Conway's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Conway
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Conway, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Conway averages can't show:
We read public map data around Conway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Conway average
How we know this about Conway
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 Conway’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 Conway
When does frost risk typically end in Conway?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Conway typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Conway?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Conway typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Conway?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Conway sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 5, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Conway?
The federal record around Conway is a meaningful one — 274 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (139), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Conway?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Conway's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Conway'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 Conway’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Conway's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 29,852 acres it covers and 274 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Conway's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Conway's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 19 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 274 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Conway, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Conway's boundary and the 29,852 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Conway's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Conway's 29,852 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Faulkner County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Faulkner 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 Faulkner County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Conway's 29,852 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Conway you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 29,852 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Conway-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasConway sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.