Forrest City, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Forrest City, 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 Forrest City 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 Forrest City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Forrest City — the short answer
Forrest City, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 266 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- 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
- ~266
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Forrest City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Forrest City's 266-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Forrest City
Each reading below is measured for Forrest City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredForrest City runs about 266 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
MeasuredForrest City 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 Forrest City is in
Forrest City sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Forrest City's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Francis County.
What Grows in Forrest City
Every plant below cleared Forrest City's own zone 8a and its 266-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Forrest City?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (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 Forrest City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Forrest City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUALITY CHEMICAL CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SCHOOL BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DOWNTOWN EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FORREST CITY SCHOOL DIST NO 7Brownfields · 1800 ft
- 05N03E28CDA1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- PETE'S MUFFLER SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MERCHANTS SPECIALTY COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH-BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FORREST CITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GROWERS' EQUIPMENT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Forrest City'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 Forrest City.
Total Sites
201
within ~10 miles of Forrest City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Forrest City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Forrest City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Forrest City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Forrest City — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (127 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Forrest City
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 Forrest City average
Your land is one point inside Forrest City
Everything above resolves to Forrest City 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 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 Forrest City Average
Forrest City Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Forrest City
- ●One soil character for all of Forrest City
- ●Frost dates read at Forrest City's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Forrest City's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Forrest City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Forrest City, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Forrest City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Forrest City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Forrest City average
How we know this about Forrest City
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 Forrest City’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 Forrest City
When does frost risk typically end in Forrest City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Forrest City typically lands around Mar 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Forrest City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Forrest City 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 266 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Forrest City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Forrest City sees about 266 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 12, about 231 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Forrest City?
The federal record around Forrest City is a meaningful one — 201 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (127), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Forrest City?
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 Forrest City's scale — its 8a band and its 266-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Forrest City'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 Forrest City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Forrest City's own scale — its own ~266-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,957 acres it covers and 201 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Forrest City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Forrest City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 5 and Nov 26 and the ~266-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 201 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Forrest City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Forrest City's boundary and the 12,957 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~266-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Forrest City's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Forrest City's 12,957 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Francis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Francis 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 St. Francis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Forrest City's 12,957 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Forrest City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,957 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 Forrest City-wide figureread your own land →
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