Fort Smith, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Fort Smith, 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 Fort Smith 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 Fort Smith — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Smith — the short answer
Fort Smith, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 41K 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 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 41K 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 Fort Smith's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Smith's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Smith
Each reading below is measured for Fort Smith itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Smith runs about 261 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
MeasuredFort Smith 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 Fort Smith is in
Fort Smith sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Smith's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sebastian County.
What Grows in Fort Smith
Every plant below cleared Fort Smith's own zone 8a and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Smith?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 21 — 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 Fort Smith
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Smith. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PIC N TOTE #6Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 188TH FIGHTER WING (ANG)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 188TH WING ARKANSAS AIR NATIONAL GUARDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FT SMITH DIAMOND SHAMROCK #465Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- E-Z MART #172Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FORT SMITH AIRPORT COMMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FORT SMITH AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FORT SMITH AR ASRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- EXXON SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SIMMONS EASTSIDE AUTO #550Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HOME DEPOT #1404Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- FORT SMITH MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Smith'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 Fort Smith.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Smith
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Smith
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Smith, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 85 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Smith. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fort Smith
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 Fort Smith average
Your land is one point inside Fort Smith
Everything above resolves to Fort Smith as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 41K 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 Fort Smith Average
Fort Smith Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Fort Smith
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Smith
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Smith's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Smith's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Smith
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Smith, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Smith averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Smith — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Smith average
How we know this about Fort Smith
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 Fort Smith’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 Fort Smith
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Smith?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Smith 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 Fort Smith?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Smith typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Smith?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Smith sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 7, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Smith?
The federal record around Fort Smith is a meaningful one — 966 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (565), 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 Fort Smith?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Smith's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Smith'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 Fort Smith’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Smith's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 41,081 acres it covers and 966 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Smith's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Smith's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 5 and Nov 21 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 966 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Smith, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Smith's boundary and the 41,081 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Smith's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Smith's 41,081 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sebastian County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sebastian 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 Sebastian County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Smith's 41,081 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Smith you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 41,081 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 Fort Smith-wide figureread your own land →
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