Poplar Grove, 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 Poplar Grove, 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 Poplar Grove 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 Poplar Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Poplar Grove — the short answer
Poplar Grove, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 279 days between hard freezes, across 869 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Phillips County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Phillips County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~279
- Phillips County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 869 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 Phillips County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Poplar Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Poplar Grove's 279-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Poplar Grove
Each reading below is measured for Poplar Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPoplar Grove runs about 279 days between hard freezes (read from Phillips County, the closest normal to Poplar Grove) — 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
MeasuredPoplar Grove 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 Poplar Grove is in
Poplar Grove sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Poplar Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Phillips County.
What Grows in Poplar Grove
Every plant below cleared Poplar Grove's own zone 8a and its 279-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Poplar Grove?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Poplar Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Poplar Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BARTON LEXA SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MARVELL WATERWORKSPFAS · 1.2 mi
- YOUNG, R. J.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- WEST END TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- PHILLIPS COUNTY ROAD DEPTBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- SUDDATH'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- SHADDEN'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- CRISP GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- PRODUCERS TRACTOR CO.-MARVELLBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- DOUBLE QUICK #94Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- MARVELL SCHOOL DISTRICT #22Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- MARVELL FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Poplar Grove'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 Poplar Grove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Poplar Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Poplar Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Poplar Grove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Poplar Grove — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (46 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Poplar Grove
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 Poplar Grove average
Your land is one point inside Poplar Grove
Everything above resolves to Poplar Grove as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 869 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Phillips County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Poplar Grove Average
Poplar Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Poplar Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Poplar Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Poplar Grove's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Poplar Grove's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Poplar Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Poplar Grove, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Poplar Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Poplar Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Poplar Grove average
How we know this about Poplar Grove
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 Phillips 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 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 Poplar Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Poplar Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Poplar Grove typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Poplar Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Poplar Grove typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 279 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Poplar Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Poplar Grove sees about 279 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 15, about 244 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Poplar Grove?
The federal record around Poplar Grove is a meaningful one — 69 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Poplar Grove?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Poplar Grove's scale — its 8a band and its 279-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Poplar Grove'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 Poplar Grove’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Poplar Grove's own scale — the 869 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Poplar Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Poplar Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Poplar Grove's boundary and the 869 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~279-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Poplar Grove's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Poplar Grove has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Phillips County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Poplar Grove's 869 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Phillips County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Phillips 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 Phillips County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Poplar Grove's 869 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Poplar Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 869 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Poplar Grove-wide figureread your own land →
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