Donaldson, 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.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Donaldson, 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 Donaldson 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 Donaldson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Donaldson — the short answer
Donaldson, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 378 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 378 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 Donaldson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Donaldson's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Donaldson
Each reading below is measured for Donaldson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDonaldson runs about 258 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
MeasuredDonaldson 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 Donaldson is in
Donaldson sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Donaldson's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hot Spring County is mostly Ouachita Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Donaldson
Every plant below cleared Donaldson's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Donaldson?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Donaldson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Donaldson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 06S18W03DAA1Nitrate · 400 ft
- 06S18W03ADD1Nitrate · 600 ft
- 06S18W03ADC1Nitrate · 850 ft
- 06S18W03ACD1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 06S18W03DBA1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 06S18W03DBA2Nitrate · 1200 ft
- DONALDSON COUNTRY STORE, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 06S18W03ADB1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 06S18W03AAC1Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 06S18W03DBC1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 06S18W03ACC1Nitrate · 1900 ft
- DONALDSON GROCERY & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Donaldson'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 Donaldson.
Total Sites
123
within ~10 miles of Donaldson
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Donaldson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Donaldson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Donaldson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Donaldson — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (74 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Donaldson
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 Donaldson average
Your land is one point inside Donaldson
Everything above resolves to Donaldson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 378 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 town 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 Donaldson Average
Donaldson Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Donaldson
- ●One soil character for all of Donaldson
- ●Frost dates read at Donaldson's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Donaldson's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Donaldson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Donaldson, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Donaldson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Donaldson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Donaldson average
How we know this about Donaldson
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Donaldson’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Donaldson
When does frost risk typically end in Donaldson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Donaldson typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Donaldson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Donaldson typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Donaldson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Donaldson sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 6, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Donaldson?
The federal record around Donaldson is a meaningful one — 123 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (74), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Donaldson?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Donaldson's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Donaldson'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 Donaldson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Donaldson's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 378 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Donaldson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Donaldson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 20 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Donaldson, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Donaldson's boundary and the 378 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Donaldson sits in the South Central Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Donaldson's 378 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hot Spring County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hot Spring 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 Hot Spring County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Donaldson's 378 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Donaldson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 378 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Donaldson-wide figureread your own land →
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