Lepanto, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lepanto, 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 Lepanto 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 Lepanto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lepanto — the short answer
Lepanto, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Lepanto's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lepanto's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lepanto
Each reading below is measured for Lepanto itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLepanto runs about 260 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
MeasuredLepanto 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 Lepanto is in
Lepanto sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lepanto's own centroid rather than borrowed from Poinsett County.
What Grows in Lepanto
Every plant below cleared Lepanto's own zone 8a and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lepanto?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Lepanto
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lepanto. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ST. FRANCIS VALLEY IMPLEMENT CUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- JORDAN'S KWIK STOP #32Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- 11N07E03CAA1Nitrate · 750 ft
- LEPANTO CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LITTLE RIVER BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JORDAN'S KWIK STOP #39Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- JORDAN'S KWIK STOP #14Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- LEPANTO CAMPUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- DUNLAP'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PORTIS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 12N08E31CCC1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- MONETTE CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lepanto'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 Lepanto.
Total Sites
82
within ~10 miles of Lepanto
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lepanto
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lepanto
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lepanto, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Lepanto. 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 Lepanto
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 Lepanto average
Your land is one point inside Lepanto
Everything above resolves to Lepanto 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 city 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 Lepanto Average
Lepanto Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lepanto
- ●One soil character for all of Lepanto
- ●Frost dates read at Lepanto's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lepanto's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lepanto
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lepanto, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lepanto averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lepanto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lepanto average
How we know this about Lepanto
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Lepanto’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Lepanto
When does frost risk typically end in Lepanto?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lepanto typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Lepanto?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lepanto typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lepanto?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lepanto sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 8, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lepanto?
The federal record around Lepanto shows 82 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lepanto?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lepanto's scale — its 8a band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lepanto'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 Lepanto’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lepanto's own scale — its own ~260-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,001 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lepanto's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lepanto's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 22 and the ~260-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lepanto, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lepanto's boundary and the 1,001 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lepanto's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lepanto's 1,001 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Poinsett County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Poinsett 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 Poinsett County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lepanto's 1,001 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lepanto you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,001 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 Lepanto-wide figureread your own land →
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