Des Arc, 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.
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 Des Arc, 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 Des Arc 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 Des Arc — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Des Arc — the short answer
Des Arc, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 272 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~272
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Des Arc's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Des Arc's 272-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Des Arc
Each reading below is measured for Des Arc itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDes Arc runs about 272 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredDes Arc 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 Des Arc is in
Des Arc sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Des Arc's own centroid rather than borrowed from Prairie County.
What Grows in Des Arc
Every plant below cleared Des Arc's own zone 8a and its 272-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Des Arc?
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 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 27 — 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 Des Arc
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Des Arc. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHUNKY MUNKY EXPRESS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- KING'S ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- THE SNACK SHACKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HARVEY EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HARVEY'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 04N05W11DDC1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- STORMFRONT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PRAIRIE COUNTY FAIRGROUNDSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BIG D'S ONE STOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DES ARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 04N05W09CDC1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 04N05W16BCB1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Des Arc'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 Des Arc.
Total Sites
97
within ~10 miles of Des Arc
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Des Arc
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Des Arc
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Des Arc, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 74 sites within ~10 miles of Des Arc. 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 Des Arc
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 Des Arc average
Your land is one point inside Des Arc
Everything above resolves to Des Arc as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Des Arc Average
Des Arc Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Des Arc
- ●One soil character for all of Des Arc
- ●Frost dates read at Des Arc's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Des Arc's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Des Arc
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Des Arc, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Des Arc averages can't show:
We read public map data around Des Arc — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Des Arc average
How we know this about Des Arc
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 Des Arc’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 Des Arc
When does frost risk typically end in Des Arc?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Des Arc 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 Des Arc?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Des Arc typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 272 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Des Arc?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Des Arc sees about 272 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 13, about 237 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Des Arc?
The federal record around Des Arc shows 97 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (74), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Des Arc?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Des Arc's scale — its 8a band and its 272-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Des Arc'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 Des Arc’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Des Arc's own scale — its own ~272-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,345 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Des Arc's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Des Arc's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 28 and Nov 27 and the ~272-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Des Arc, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Des Arc's boundary and the 1,345 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~272-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Des Arc's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Des Arc's 1,345 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prairie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prairie 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 Prairie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Des Arc's 1,345 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Des Arc you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,345 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Des Arc-wide figureread your own land →
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