Lake Hamilton, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Lake Hamilton, 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 Lake Hamilton 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 Lake Hamilton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Hamilton — the short answer
Lake Hamilton, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Lake Hamilton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Hamilton's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Hamilton
Each reading below is measured for Lake Hamilton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Hamilton 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
MeasuredLake Hamilton 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 Lake Hamilton is in
Lake Hamilton sits in the Ouachita Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Hamilton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Garland County.
What Grows in Lake Hamilton
Every plant below cleared Lake Hamilton'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 Lake Hamilton?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Lake Hamilton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Hamilton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GEURIN HONDAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HOBSON MTN. COMPANY INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AHTD ABANDONEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GREGG ORR MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DODD CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KAHUNA BAY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LAKE HAMILTON FOOD & FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- THE OUTPOSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TERRY'S KERR-MCGEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LIEN'S MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SUPERSTOP #128Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ALL CREATURES ANIMAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Hamilton'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 Lake Hamilton.
Total Sites
393
within ~10 miles of Lake Hamilton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Hamilton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Hamilton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Hamilton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 273 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Hamilton. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Hamilton
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 Lake Hamilton average
Your land is one point inside Lake Hamilton
Everything above resolves to Lake Hamilton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Lake Hamilton Average
Lake Hamilton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lake Hamilton
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Hamilton
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Hamilton's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Hamilton's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Hamilton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Hamilton, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Hamilton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Hamilton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Hamilton average
How we know this about Lake Hamilton
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 Lake Hamilton’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 Lake Hamilton
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Hamilton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Hamilton typically lands around Mar 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Lake Hamilton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Hamilton typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Hamilton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Hamilton sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 7, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Hamilton?
The federal record around Lake Hamilton is a meaningful one — 393 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (273), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Lake Hamilton?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Hamilton's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Hamilton'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 Lake Hamilton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Hamilton's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,325 acres it covers and 393 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Hamilton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Hamilton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 5 and Nov 21 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 393 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Hamilton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Hamilton's boundary and the 1,325 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 Lake Hamilton's own centroid, the Ouachita MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Hamilton's 1,325 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Garland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Garland 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 Garland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Hamilton's 1,325 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Hamilton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,325 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Lake Hamilton-wide figureread your own land →
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