Paris, 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 Paris, 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 Paris 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 Paris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paris — the short answer
Paris, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Paris's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paris's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paris
Each reading below is measured for Paris itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredParis runs about 250 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
MeasuredParis 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 Paris is in
Paris sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paris's own centroid rather than borrowed from Logan County.
What Grows in Paris
Every plant below cleared Paris's own zone 8a and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paris?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 Paris
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paris. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STARK MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 400 ft
- STARK MANUFACTURING INCToxics Release Inventory · 400 ft
- JAKE'S 66Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CLOYES GEAR COMPANY, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 800 ft
- DOWNTOWN 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LOTS 5 & 6 BLOCK ""F"" ORIGINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TYSON FOODS INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- BARHAM, KEVIN ATTORNEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CIRCLE S FOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PARIS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MARTIN CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PARIS, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paris'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 Paris.
Total Sites
156
within ~10 miles of Paris
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paris
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paris
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paris, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 102 sites within ~10 miles of Paris. 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 Paris
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 Paris average
Your land is one point inside Paris
Everything above resolves to Paris as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Paris Average
Paris Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Paris
- ●One soil character for all of Paris
- ●Frost dates read at Paris's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paris's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paris
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paris, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paris averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paris average
How we know this about Paris
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 Paris’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 Paris
When does frost risk typically end in Paris?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paris typically lands around Mar 12, 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 Apr 2.
When is the first frost in Paris?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paris typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paris?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paris sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 3, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paris?
The federal record around Paris shows 156 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (102), the nearest Brownfields 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 Paris?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paris's scale — its 8a band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paris'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 Paris’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Paris's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,528 acres it covers and 156 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paris's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paris's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 17 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 156 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paris, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paris's boundary and the 3,528 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paris's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Paris's 3,528 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Logan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Logan 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 Logan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paris's 3,528 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paris you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,528 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Paris-wide figureread your own land →
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