Glenwood, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Glenwood, 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 Glenwood 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 Glenwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Glenwood — the short answer
Glenwood, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Glenwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glenwood's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glenwood
Each reading below is measured for Glenwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGlenwood runs about 242 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
MeasuredGlenwood 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 Glenwood is in
Glenwood sits in the Ouachita Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Glenwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Glenwood
Every plant below cleared Glenwood's own zone 8a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glenwood?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Glenwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glenwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EZ MART #4345Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LUX CORNER GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- QUICK BOYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SCANTLING, HERBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- E-Z MART #57Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GLENWOOD COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PATE'S TRADINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- PIKE COUNTY ROAD DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MOORE, NOBLE D.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SHIELDS LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- JACKSON, E. J. SSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- JONES CHEVRON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glenwood'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 Glenwood.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of Glenwood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glenwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glenwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Glenwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Glenwood — Mining (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (62 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Glenwood
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 Glenwood average
Your land is one point inside Glenwood
Everything above resolves to Glenwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Glenwood Average
Glenwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Glenwood
- ●One soil character for all of Glenwood
- ●Frost dates read at Glenwood's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glenwood's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glenwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glenwood, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glenwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glenwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glenwood average
How we know this about Glenwood
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 Glenwood’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 Glenwood
When does frost risk typically end in Glenwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glenwood typically lands around Mar 17, 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 Apr 7.
When is the first frost in Glenwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glenwood typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glenwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glenwood sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Oct 31, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glenwood?
The federal record around Glenwood is a meaningful one — 87 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Glenwood?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Glenwood's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glenwood'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 Glenwood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Glenwood's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,702 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glenwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Glenwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 14 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glenwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glenwood's boundary and the 5,702 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Glenwood's own centroid, the Ouachita MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Glenwood's 5,702 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike 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 Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glenwood's 5,702 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glenwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,702 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Glenwood-wide figureread your own land →
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