Leola, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Leola, 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 Leola 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 Leola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leola — the short answer
Leola, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 547 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 547 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 Leola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leola's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leola
Each reading below is measured for Leola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeola runs about 252 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLeola 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 Leola is in
Leola sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Leola
Every plant below cleared Leola's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leola?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Leola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAMB'S TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- LEOLA SCHOOL SYSTEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- ALLEN TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- 06S15W26ACA1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 06S15W25CCC4Nitrate · 2400 ft
- 06S15W25CCC3Nitrate · 2500 ft
- BIG RED #213Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- ARKANSAS BIOENERGY, LLC - LEOLAToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- 06S15W26AAA1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 06S16W36CAB1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- CARTHAGE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leola'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 Leola.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Leola
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leola
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leola, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Leola. 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 Leola
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 Leola average
Your land is one point inside Leola
Everything above resolves to Leola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 547 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 Leola Average
Leola Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Leola
- ●One soil character for all of Leola
- ●Frost dates read at Leola's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leola's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leola, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leola average
How we know this about Leola
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 Leola’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 Leola
When does frost risk typically end in Leola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leola typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Leola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leola typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leola sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 2, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leola?
The federal record around Leola is light — 38 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (24), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Leola?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leola's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leola'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 Leola’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Leola's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 547 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 16 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leola, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leola's boundary and the 547 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leola's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leola's 547 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leola's 547 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 547 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Leola-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasLeola sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides