Lonsdale, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lonsdale, 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 Lonsdale 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 Lonsdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lonsdale — the short answer
Lonsdale, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 259 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
- 259 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 Lonsdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lonsdale's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lonsdale
Each reading below is measured for Lonsdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLonsdale 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
MeasuredLonsdale 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 Lonsdale is in
Lonsdale sits in the Ouachita Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lonsdale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Garland County.
What Grows in Lonsdale
Every plant below cleared Lonsdale'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 Lonsdale?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Lonsdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lonsdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 02S17W22AAB1Nitrate · 900 ft
- ALWELD COMMERCIAL BOATS, INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- TEN MILE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- WILLIAMS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE WATERWORKSPFAS · 3.7 mi
- N GARLAND CO REG WATER DISTPFAS · 3.7 mi
- MAGCOBAR MINESuperfund · 4.8 mi
- CK QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- HALLIBURTON MAGNET COVE GRINDING PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 4.9 mi
- HALLIBURTON ENERGY/MAGNET COVEBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- CARDEN FAMILYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- CROW'S STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lonsdale'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 Lonsdale.
Total Sites
97
within ~10 miles of Lonsdale
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lonsdale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lonsdale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lonsdale, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lonsdale — Superfund (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lonsdale
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 Lonsdale average
Your land is one point inside Lonsdale
Everything above resolves to Lonsdale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 259 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 Lonsdale Average
Lonsdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lonsdale
- ●One soil character for all of Lonsdale
- ●Frost dates read at Lonsdale's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lonsdale's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lonsdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lonsdale, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lonsdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lonsdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lonsdale average
How we know this about Lonsdale
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 Lonsdale’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 Lonsdale
When does frost risk typically end in Lonsdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lonsdale 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 Lonsdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lonsdale 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 Lonsdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lonsdale 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 Lonsdale?
The federal record around Lonsdale is a meaningful one — 97 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Lonsdale?
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 Lonsdale's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lonsdale'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 Lonsdale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lonsdale's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 259 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lonsdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lonsdale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 5 and Nov 21 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lonsdale, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lonsdale's boundary and the 259 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 Lonsdale's own centroid, the Ouachita MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lonsdale's 259 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 Lonsdale's 259 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lonsdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 259 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Lonsdale-wide figureread your own land →
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