Crossett, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Crossett, 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 Crossett 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 Crossett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Crossett — the short answer
Crossett, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 268 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- Ashley County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Ashley County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~268
- Ashley County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Ashley County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Crossett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crossett's 268-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crossett
Each reading below is measured for Crossett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCrossett runs about 268 days between hard freezes (read from Ashley County, the closest normal to Crossett) — 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
MeasuredCrossett 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 Crossett is in
Crossett sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Crossett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ashley County.
What Grows in Crossett
Every plant below cleared Crossett's own zone 8a and its 268-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crossett?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Crossett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crossett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JR FOOD MART #166Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CROSSETT SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KORNER KWIK MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BROOKSHIRE GROCERY #82Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ALLTEL ARKANSAS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- GEORGIA-PACIFIC CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MUNICIPAL AIRPORT COMMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- DEAN OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CROSSETT EXPERIMENTAL FORESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CROSSETT MUNICIPAL AIRPORT COMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- JR FOOD MART #120Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- 18S08W29BCC1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crossett'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 Crossett.
Total Sites
136
within ~10 miles of Crossett
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crossett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crossett
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crossett, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Crossett. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Crossett
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 Crossett average
Your land is one point inside Crossett
Everything above resolves to Crossett as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Ashley 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 Crossett Average
Crossett Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Crossett
- ●One soil character for all of Crossett
- ●Frost dates read at Crossett's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crossett's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crossett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crossett, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crossett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crossett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crossett average
How we know this about Crossett
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 Ashley 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 Crossett
When does frost risk typically end in Crossett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crossett typically lands around Feb 28, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Crossett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crossett typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 268 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crossett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crossett sees about 268 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 9, about 233 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crossett?
The federal record around Crossett shows 136 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (73), 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 Crossett?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crossett's scale — its 8a band and its 268-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crossett'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 Crossett’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Crossett's own scale — the 4,582 acres it covers and 136 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crossett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 136 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crossett, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crossett's boundary and the 4,582 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~268-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crossett's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Crossett has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Ashley County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crossett's 4,582 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ashley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ashley 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 Ashley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crossett's 4,582 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crossett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,582 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 Crossett-wide figureread your own land →