Rondo, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rondo, 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 Rondo 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 Rondo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rondo — the short answer
Rondo, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 645 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- Lee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Lee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- Lee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 645 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 Lee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Rondo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rondo's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rondo
Each reading below is measured for Rondo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRondo runs about 273 days between hard freezes (read from Lee County, the closest normal to Rondo) — 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
MeasuredRondo 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 Rondo is in
Rondo sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rondo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lee County.
What Grows in Rondo
Every plant below cleared Rondo's own zone 8a and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rondo?
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 28 — 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 Rondo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rondo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 01N03E23CCC1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 01N03E35BBA1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- TRI COUNTY SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- AR ARMY NATL GUARD-OMS8Brownfields · 3.9 mi
- LEE COUNTY PESTICIDE COLLECTION (STERICYCLE)Brownfields · 4.0 mi
- DRENNON'S GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- BOALS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- CRS @ LEE COUNTY ROAD SHOPBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- FANTS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- AMERICAN TOOL COS. OF AR, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- HUXTABLE PUMPING PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- 01N03E02BBC1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rondo'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 Rondo.
Total Sites
145
within ~10 miles of Rondo
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rondo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rondo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rondo, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 98 sites within ~10 miles of Rondo. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Rondo
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 Rondo average
Your land is one point inside Rondo
Everything above resolves to Rondo as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 645 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lee 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 Rondo Average
Rondo Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Rondo
- ●One soil character for all of Rondo
- ●Frost dates read at Rondo's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rondo's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rondo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rondo, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rondo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rondo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rondo average
How we know this about Rondo
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 Lee 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 Rondo
When does frost risk typically end in Rondo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rondo 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 Rondo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rondo typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rondo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rondo sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 14, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rondo?
The federal record around Rondo shows 145 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (98), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.2 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 Rondo?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rondo's scale — its 8a band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rondo'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 Rondo’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Rondo's own scale — the 645 acres it covers and 145 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rondo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 145 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rondo, the closest Nitrate record about 3.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rondo's boundary and the 645 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rondo's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Rondo has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rondo's 645 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lee 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 Lee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rondo's 645 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rondo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 645 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.2 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 Rondo-wide figureread your own land →
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