Portland, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Portland, 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 Portland 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 Portland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Portland — the short answer
Portland, Arkansas: USDA zone 8b, about 268 days between hard freezes, across 685 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
- 685 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 Portland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Portland's 268-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Portland
Each reading below is measured for Portland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPortland runs about 268 days between hard freezes (read from Ashley County, the closest normal to Portland) — 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
MeasuredPortland 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 Portland is in
Portland sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Portland'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 Portland
Every plant below cleared Portland'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 Portland?
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 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. 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 Portland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Portland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 17S04W10BCD1Nitrate · 850 ft
- PORTLAND STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FARM EQUIPMENT COMPANYBrownfields · 1200 ft
- PORTLAND TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SCOTT PETROLEUM CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WILSON-PUGH, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 17S04W16DAC1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- MONTROSE AUTO SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- SASSY JONES HWY 165 WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- 16S04W24BAD1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- BETTY BUSSELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Portland'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 Portland.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Portland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Portland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Portland, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Portland. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Portland
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 Portland average
Your land is one point inside Portland
Everything above resolves to Portland as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 685 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 Portland Average
Portland Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Portland
- ●One soil character for all of Portland
- ●Frost dates read at Portland's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Portland's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Portland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Portland, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Portland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Portland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Portland average
How we know this about Portland
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 Portland
When does frost risk typically end in Portland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Portland 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 Portland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Portland 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 Portland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Portland 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 Portland?
The federal record around Portland shows 38 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Portland?
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 Portland's scale — its 8b band and its 268-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Portland'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 Portland’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Portland's own scale — the 685 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Portland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Portland, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Portland's boundary and the 685 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~268-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Portland 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 — Portland 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 Portland's 685 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 Portland's 685 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Portland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 685 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Portland-wide figureread your own land →