Gum Springs, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gum Springs, 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 Gum Springs 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 Gum Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gum Springs — the short answer
Gum Springs, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 250 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 250 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 Gum Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gum Springs's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gum Springs
Each reading below is measured for Gum Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGum Springs 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
MeasuredGum Springs 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 Gum Springs is in
Gum Springs sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gum Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in Gum Springs
Every plant below cleared Gum Springs'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 Gum Springs?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Gum Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gum Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ENVIROVAC WASTE TRANSPORT SYSTEMS, INC.Brownfields · 850 ft
- 67 PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SCROLL TECHNOLOGIESToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- TORRINGTON -FAFNIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PETIT JEAN POULTRY ARKADELPHIA PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- SIPLAST LIQUID WATERPROOFINGBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SIPLAST LIQUID WATERPROOFINGToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- 08S20W11DBB1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 08S19W07ABC1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- AHTD- ARKADELPHIA AREA HQUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CONTAINER LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT LLC - DRUMCOBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- CONTAINER LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT LLC - DRUMCOToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gum Springs'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 Gum Springs.
Total Sites
191
within ~10 miles of Gum Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gum Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gum Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gum Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gum Springs — Nitrate (68 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Gum Springs
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 Gum Springs average
Your land is one point inside Gum Springs
Everything above resolves to Gum Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 250 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 Gum Springs Average
Gum Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Gum Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Gum Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Gum Springs's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gum Springs's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gum Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gum Springs, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gum Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gum Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gum Springs average
How we know this about Gum Springs
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 Gum Springs’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 Gum Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Gum Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gum Springs typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Gum Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gum Springs typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gum Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gum Springs sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 5, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gum Springs?
The federal record around Gum Springs is a meaningful one — 191 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest Brownfields 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 Gum Springs?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gum Springs's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gum Springs'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 Gum Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gum Springs's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 250 acres it covers and 191 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gum Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gum Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 3 and Nov 19 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 191 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gum Springs, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gum Springs's boundary and the 250 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 Gum Springs's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gum Springs's 250 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clark 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 Clark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gum Springs's 250 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gum Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 250 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Gum Springs-wide figureread your own land →