Rivervale, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — 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 Rivervale, 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 Rivervale 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 Rivervale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rivervale — the short answer
Rivervale, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 238 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 238 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 Rivervale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rivervale's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rivervale
Each reading below is measured for Rivervale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRivervale runs about 262 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
MeasuredRivervale 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 Rivervale is in
Rivervale sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rivervale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Poinsett County.
What Grows in Rivervale
Every plant below cleared Rivervale's own zone 8a and its 262-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rivervale?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Rivervale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rivervale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MONETTE CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RIVERVALE STATUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 13N07E35ADC1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- PORTIS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- DUNLAP'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- JORDAN'S KWIK STOP #14Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- JORDAN'S KWIK STOP #39Underground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- 12N08E08BCB1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- LEPANTO CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- LITTLE RIVER BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- WEST RIDGE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- LEPANTO CAMPUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rivervale'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 Rivervale.
Total Sites
80
within ~10 miles of Rivervale
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rivervale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rivervale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rivervale, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Rivervale. 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 Rivervale
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 Rivervale average
Your land is one point inside Rivervale
Everything above resolves to Rivervale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 238 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 Rivervale Average
Rivervale Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Rivervale
- ●One soil character for all of Rivervale
- ●Frost dates read at Rivervale's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rivervale's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rivervale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rivervale, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rivervale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rivervale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rivervale average
How we know this about Rivervale
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 Rivervale’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 Rivervale
When does frost risk typically end in Rivervale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rivervale typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Rivervale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rivervale typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 262 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rivervale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rivervale sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 10, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rivervale?
The federal record around Rivervale shows 80 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Rivervale?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rivervale's scale — its 8a band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rivervale'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 Rivervale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rivervale's own scale — its own ~262-day season between 28°F freezes, the 238 acres it covers and 80 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rivervale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rivervale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 24 and the ~262-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 80 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rivervale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rivervale's boundary and the 238 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rivervale's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rivervale's 238 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 Rivervale's 238 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rivervale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 238 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Rivervale-wide figureread your own land →