Madison, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Madison, 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 Madison 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 Madison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Madison — the short answer
Madison, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Madison's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Madison's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Madison
Each reading below is measured for Madison itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMadison runs about 257 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
MeasuredMadison 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 Madison is in
Madison sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Madison's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: St. Francis County is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Madison
Every plant below cleared Madison's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Madison?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Madison
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Madison. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARM SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NORTH SIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AUSTILL'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GRIFFITH LUMBER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CRS @ ST FRANCIS COUNTY ROAD SHOPBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FORREST CITY WATERWORKSPFAS · 0.7 mi
- 05N04E30CAD2Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- ST FRANCIS COUNTY ROAD DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- AT&T COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE - FORREST CITYBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- MARTIN'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Madison'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 Madison.
Total Sites
197
within ~10 miles of Madison
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Madison
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Madison
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Madison, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Madison. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Madison
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 Madison average
Your land is one point inside Madison
Everything above resolves to Madison as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Madison Average
Madison Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Madison
- ●One soil character for all of Madison
- ●Frost dates read at Madison's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Madison's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Madison
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Madison, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Madison averages can't show:
We read public map data around Madison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Madison average
How we know this about Madison
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 Madison’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 Madison
When does frost risk typically end in Madison?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Madison typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Madison?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Madison typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Madison?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Madison sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 6, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Madison?
The federal record around Madison is a meaningful one — 197 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (120), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Madison?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Madison's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Madison'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 Madison’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Madison's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,590 acres it covers and 197 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Madison's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Madison's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 20 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 197 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Madison, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Madison's boundary and the 1,590 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Madison sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Madison's 1,590 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Francis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Francis 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 St. Francis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Madison's 1,590 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Madison you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,590 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Madison-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasMadison sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides