Floyd, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Floyd, 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 Floyd 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 Floyd — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Floyd — the short answer
Floyd, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 3K 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Floyd's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Floyd's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Floyd
Each reading below is measured for Floyd itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFloyd runs about 264 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
MeasuredFloyd 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 Floyd is in
Floyd sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Floyd's own centroid rather than borrowed from White County.
What Grows in Floyd
Every plant below cleared Floyd's own zone 8a and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Floyd?
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 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 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 Floyd
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Floyd. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOOSES COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 07N09W20DCB01Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- WD'S COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- 08N09W27DCC01Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- GREENHILL C-STORE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- TANNER ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- BURKE ENVIRONMENTAL LLCBrownfields · 6.6 mi
- 06N09W34DAD1Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- BEEBE WATERWORKSPFAS · 7.1 mi
- OPAL'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- McRAE K.M.Underground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- REAVES CONVENIENCE PLUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Floyd'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 Floyd.
Total Sites
55
within ~10 miles of Floyd
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Floyd
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Floyd
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Floyd, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Floyd. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Floyd
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 Floyd average
Your land is one point inside Floyd
Everything above resolves to Floyd as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Floyd Average
Floyd Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Floyd
- ●One soil character for all of Floyd
- ●Frost dates read at Floyd's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Floyd's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Floyd
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Floyd, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Floyd averages can't show:
We read public map data around Floyd — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Floyd average
How we know this about Floyd
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 Floyd’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 Floyd
When does frost risk typically end in Floyd?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Floyd 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 Floyd?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Floyd 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 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Floyd?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Floyd sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 12, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Floyd?
The federal record around Floyd is a meaningful one — 55 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Floyd?
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 Floyd's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Floyd'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 Floyd’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Floyd's own scale — its own ~264-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,092 acres it covers and 55 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Floyd's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Floyd's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 26 and the ~264-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 55 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Floyd, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Floyd's boundary and the 3,092 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Floyd's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Floyd's 3,092 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom White County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom White 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 White County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Floyd's 3,092 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Floyd you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,092 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Floyd-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasFloyd sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides