Payneway, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Payneway, 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 Payneway 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 Payneway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Payneway — the short answer
Payneway, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Payneway's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Payneway's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Payneway
Each reading below is measured for Payneway itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPayneway 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
MeasuredPayneway 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 Payneway is in
Payneway sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Payneway's own centroid rather than borrowed from Poinsett County.
What Grows in Payneway
Every plant below cleared Payneway'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 Payneway?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 Payneway
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Payneway. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUALLS, OLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- PAYNEWAY CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- W. R. PAYNE ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- SOUTH STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- TRUMANN WATERWORKSPFAS · 3.9 mi
- 11N05E01CDB1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- TAYLOR AND STUCKEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- JORDAN'S KWIK STOP #36Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- MID-SOUTH SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- RITTER EQUIPMENT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- WEONA GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- DELTA TECHNICAL INSTITUTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Payneway'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 Payneway.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Payneway
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Payneway
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Payneway
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Payneway, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Payneway — Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (63 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Payneway
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 Payneway average
Your land is one point inside Payneway
Everything above resolves to Payneway as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Payneway Average
Payneway Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Payneway
- ●One soil character for all of Payneway
- ●Frost dates read at Payneway's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Payneway's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Payneway
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Payneway, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Payneway averages can't show:
We read public map data around Payneway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Payneway average
How we know this about Payneway
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 Payneway’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 Payneway
When does frost risk typically end in Payneway?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Payneway typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Payneway?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Payneway typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Payneway?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Payneway sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 11, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Payneway?
The federal record around Payneway shows 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.0 miles 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 Payneway?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Payneway's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Payneway'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 Payneway’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Payneway's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,414 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Payneway's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Payneway's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 25 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Payneway, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Payneway's boundary and the 3,414 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 Payneway's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Payneway's 3,414 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Poinsett County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Poinsett 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 Poinsett County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Payneway's 3,414 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Payneway you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,414 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.0 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 Payneway-wide figureread your own land →
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