Parkdale, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Parkdale, 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 Parkdale 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 Parkdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Parkdale — the short answer
Parkdale, Arkansas: USDA zone 8b, about 268 days between hard freezes, across 653 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- Ashley County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Ashley County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~268
- Ashley County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 653 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Ashley County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Parkdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Parkdale's 268-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Parkdale
Each reading below is measured for Parkdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsParkdale runs about 268 days between hard freezes (read from Ashley County, the closest normal to Parkdale) — 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
MeasuredParkdale sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Parkdale is in
Parkdale sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Parkdale's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Ashley County is mostly South Central Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Parkdale
Every plant below cleared Parkdale's own zone 8b and its 268-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Parkdale?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Parkdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Parkdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 18S04W20CBB1Nitrate · 300 ft
- HUBBARD BRAKE FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- 19S05W12ADB1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- WILMOT SPECIAL SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- EZ MART #4291Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- JIFFY J STORES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- CALLAWAY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- J.W. AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- WARREN STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- 18S03W19DBB1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- 18S03W17CCC1Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- 18S03W29BBD1Nitrate · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Parkdale'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 Parkdale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Parkdale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Parkdale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Parkdale, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Parkdale. 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 Parkdale
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 Parkdale average
Your land is one point inside Parkdale
Everything above resolves to Parkdale as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 653 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Ashley County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Parkdale Average
Parkdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Parkdale
- ●One soil character for all of Parkdale
- ●Frost dates read at Parkdale's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Parkdale's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Parkdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Parkdale, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Parkdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Parkdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Parkdale average
How we know this about Parkdale
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 Ashley County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Parkdale
When does frost risk typically end in Parkdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Parkdale typically lands around Feb 28, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Parkdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Parkdale typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 268 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Parkdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Parkdale sees about 268 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 9, about 233 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Parkdale?
The federal record around Parkdale is light — 42 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (30), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Parkdale?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Parkdale's scale — its 8b band and its 268-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Parkdale'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 Parkdale’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Parkdale's own scale — the 653 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Parkdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Parkdale, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Parkdale's boundary and the 653 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~268-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Parkdale sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Parkdale has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Ashley County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Parkdale's 653 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ashley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ashley 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 Ashley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Parkdale's 653 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Parkdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 653 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 Parkdale-wide figureread your own land →