Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Horseshoe Lake, 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 Horseshoe Lake 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 Horseshoe Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Horseshoe Lake — the short answer
Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 98 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- Crittenden County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Crittenden County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Crittenden County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 98 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Crittenden County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Horseshoe Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Horseshoe Lake's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Horseshoe Lake
Each reading below is measured for Horseshoe Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHorseshoe Lake runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Crittenden County, the closest normal to Horseshoe Lake) — 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
MeasuredHorseshoe Lake 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 Horseshoe Lake is in
Horseshoe Lake sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Horseshoe Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crittenden County.
What Grows in Horseshoe Lake
Every plant below cleared Horseshoe Lake's own zone 8a and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Horseshoe Lake?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Horseshoe Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Horseshoe Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 211 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Horseshoe Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Horseshoe Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HORSESHOE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CLARKE FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 03N07E01DBC1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 04N07E34DAC1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 04N07E23BCD1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 03N07E03CBC1Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- H.M. BRINKLEY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- BONDS GENERAL MERCHANDISE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 03N07E10BBB1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 04N08E17BDB1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 03N07E04CAB1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 03N07E04BCA1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Horseshoe Lake'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 Horseshoe Lake.
Total Sites
90
within ~10 miles of Horseshoe Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Horseshoe Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Horseshoe Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Horseshoe Lake, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Horseshoe Lake. 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 Horseshoe Lake
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 Horseshoe Lake average
Your land is one point inside Horseshoe Lake
Everything above resolves to Horseshoe Lake as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 98 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Crittenden County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Horseshoe Lake Average
Horseshoe Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Horseshoe Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Horseshoe Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Horseshoe Lake's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Horseshoe Lake's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Horseshoe Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Horseshoe Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Horseshoe Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Horseshoe Lake average
How we know this about Horseshoe Lake
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 Crittenden County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Horseshoe Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Horseshoe Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Horseshoe Lake typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Horseshoe Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Horseshoe Lake typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Horseshoe Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Horseshoe Lake sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 11, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Horseshoe Lake?
The federal record around Horseshoe Lake shows 90 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Horseshoe Lake?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Horseshoe Lake's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Horseshoe Lake'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 Horseshoe Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Horseshoe Lake's own scale — the 98 acres it covers and 90 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Horseshoe Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 90 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Horseshoe Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Horseshoe Lake's boundary and the 98 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Horseshoe Lake's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Horseshoe Lake checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Horseshoe Lake has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Crittenden County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Horseshoe Lake's 98 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crittenden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crittenden 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 Crittenden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Horseshoe Lake's 98 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Horseshoe Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 98 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Horseshoe Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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