Goodwin, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Goodwin, 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 Goodwin 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 Goodwin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Goodwin — the short answer
Goodwin, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- 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 Goodwin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goodwin's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goodwin
Each reading below is measured for Goodwin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGoodwin runs about 273 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
MeasuredGoodwin 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 Goodwin is in
Goodwin sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Goodwin's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Francis County.
What Grows in Goodwin
Every plant below cleared Goodwin's own zone 8a and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goodwin?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Goodwin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goodwin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 04N01E30DDC1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 04N01W24DA1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- HAMBY'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- 04N01W13AAB1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- LEE COUNTY WATER ASSOCIATIONPFAS · 3.5 mi
- 04N01E13ADA1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 04N01W35CAA1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- KERR MCGEE #403Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- 03N01E17DAB1Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 04N02E16BBC1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- DYNASTY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- PALESTINE SCHOOL BUS FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goodwin'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 Goodwin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goodwin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goodwin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goodwin, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Goodwin. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Goodwin
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 Goodwin average
Your land is one point inside Goodwin
Everything above resolves to Goodwin 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 Goodwin Average
Goodwin Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Goodwin
- ●One soil character for all of Goodwin
- ●Frost dates read at Goodwin's scale: Feb 27 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goodwin's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goodwin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goodwin, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goodwin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goodwin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goodwin average
How we know this about Goodwin
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 Goodwin’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 Goodwin
When does frost risk typically end in Goodwin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goodwin typically lands around Feb 27, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Goodwin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goodwin typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goodwin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goodwin sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 13, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goodwin?
The federal record around Goodwin shows 63 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Goodwin?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Goodwin's scale — its 8a band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goodwin'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 Goodwin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Goodwin's own scale — its own ~273-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,892 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goodwin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goodwin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 27 and Nov 27 and the ~273-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goodwin, the closest Nitrate record about 2.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goodwin's boundary and the 2,892 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goodwin's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Goodwin's 2,892 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 Goodwin's 2,892 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goodwin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,892 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.1 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 Goodwin-wide figureread your own land →