East End, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in East End, 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 East End 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 East End — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East End — the short answer
East End, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 271 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of town.
- 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~271
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 13K 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 East End's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East End's 271-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East End
Each reading below is measured for East End itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast End runs about 271 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
MeasuredEast End 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 East End is in
East End sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at East End's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Saline County is mostly Ouachita Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in East End
Every plant below cleared East End's own zone 8a and its 271-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East End?
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 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near East End
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East End. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARCH ST MINI MART LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ROMINE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BRAZIL USED OIL RECOVERYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- S & K SUPERSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 02S12W18ABB1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- BIG RED # 146Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LANDMARK GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- TERMINIX, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- LANDMARK GROCERY AND GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- PRUITT'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East End'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 East End.
Total Sites
469
within ~10 miles of East End
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
32 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East End
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East End
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East End, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of East End — Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in East End
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 East End average
Your land is one point inside East End
Everything above resolves to East End as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 13K 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 East End Average
East End Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across East End
- ●One soil character for all of East End
- ●Frost dates read at East End's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East End's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East End
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East End, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East End averages can't show:
We read public map data around East End — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East End average
How we know this about East End
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 East End’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 East End
When does frost risk typically end in East End?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East End 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 East End?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East End typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 271 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East End?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East End sees about 271 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 12, about 236 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East End?
The federal record around East End is a meaningful one — 469 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (286), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 East End?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East End's scale — its 8a band and its 271-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East End'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 East End’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at East End's own scale — its own ~271-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,839 acres it covers and 469 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East End's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- East End's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 28 and Nov 26 and the ~271-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 469 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East End, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East End's boundary and the 12,839 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~271-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- East End 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 East End's 12,839 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saline 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 Saline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East End's 12,839 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East End you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,839 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 East End-wide figureread your own land →
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