Keo, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Keo, 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 Keo 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 Keo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Keo — the short answer
Keo, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 279 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~279
- 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 Keo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Keo's 279-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Keo
Each reading below is measured for Keo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKeo runs about 279 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
MeasuredKeo 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 Keo is in
Keo sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Keo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lonoke County.
What Grows in Keo
Every plant below cleared Keo's own zone 8a and its 279-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Keo?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — 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 Keo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Keo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KEO PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- KEO ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KEO QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 01S09W30BBD1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 01S09W17ADC1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 01S10W25DCA1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 01S10W25DDB1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 01S09W08CBB1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 01S10W26BAA1Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 01S09W07AAA1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- TURNER JORDAN MOTORS INCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- AG PROUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Keo'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 Keo.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Keo
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Keo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Keo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Keo, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Keo. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Keo
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 Keo average
Your land is one point inside Keo
Everything above resolves to Keo 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 Keo Average
Keo Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Keo
- ●One soil character for all of Keo
- ●Frost dates read at Keo's scale: Feb 25 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Keo's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Keo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Keo, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Keo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Keo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Keo average
How we know this about Keo
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 Keo’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 Keo
When does frost risk typically end in Keo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Keo typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Keo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Keo typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 279 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Keo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Keo sees about 279 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 17, about 244 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Keo?
The federal record around Keo shows 109 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Keo?
From about Nov 1 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 Dec 1 (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 Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Keo's scale — its 8a band and its 279-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Keo'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 Keo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Keo's own scale — its own ~279-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,151 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Keo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Keo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 25 and Dec 1 and the ~279-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Keo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Keo's boundary and the 3,151 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~279-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Keo's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Keo's 3,151 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lonoke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lonoke 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 Lonoke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Keo's 3,151 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Keo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,151 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Keo-wide figureread your own land →
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