Magnet Cove, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Magnet Cove, 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 Magnet Cove 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 Magnet Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Magnet Cove — the short answer
Magnet Cove, 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 6
- 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
- ~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 Magnet Cove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Magnet Cove's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Magnet Cove
Each reading below is measured for Magnet Cove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMagnet Cove 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
MeasuredMagnet Cove 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 Magnet Cove is in
Magnet Cove sits in the Ouachita Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Magnet Cove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hot Spring County.
What Grows in Magnet Cove
Every plant below cleared Magnet Cove'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 Magnet Cove?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (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. 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 Magnet Cove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Magnet Cove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 03S17W21DBC1Nitrate · 200 ft
- THE COVE GROC & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MAGNET COVE PUBLIC SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MARTIN MARIETTABrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MAGNET COVE GENERATING STATIONBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- MAGCOBAR MINEBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- NL PETROLEUM SERVICES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MAGCOBAR MINESuperfund · 2.1 mi
- HALLIBURTON ENERGY/MAGNET COVEBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- HALLIBURTON MAGNET COVE GRINDING PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.4 mi
- GENERAL CABLE INDUSTRIES, INC.Brownfields · 2.7 mi
- GENERAL CABLE INDUSTRIES, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Magnet Cove'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 Magnet Cove.
Total Sites
225
within ~10 miles of Magnet Cove
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Magnet Cove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Magnet Cove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Magnet Cove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Magnet Cove — Superfund (5 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Magnet Cove
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 Magnet Cove average
Your land is one point inside Magnet Cove
Everything above resolves to Magnet Cove 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 Magnet Cove Average
Magnet Cove Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Magnet Cove
- ●One soil character for all of Magnet Cove
- ●Frost dates read at Magnet Cove's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Magnet Cove's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Magnet Cove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Magnet Cove, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Magnet Cove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Magnet Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Magnet Cove average
How we know this about Magnet Cove
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 Magnet Cove’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 Magnet Cove
When does frost risk typically end in Magnet Cove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Magnet Cove typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Magnet Cove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Magnet Cove 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 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Magnet Cove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Magnet Cove sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 8, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Magnet Cove?
The federal record around Magnet Cove is a meaningful one — 225 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (125), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Magnet Cove?
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 Magnet Cove's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Magnet Cove'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 Magnet Cove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Magnet Cove's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,350 acres it covers and 225 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Magnet Cove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Magnet Cove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 22 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 225 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Magnet Cove, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Magnet Cove's boundary and the 1,350 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 Magnet Cove's own centroid, the Ouachita MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Magnet Cove's 1,350 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hot Spring County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hot Spring 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 Hot Spring County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Magnet Cove's 1,350 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Magnet Cove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,350 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Magnet Cove-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides