Tollette, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Tollette, 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 Tollette 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 Tollette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tollette — the short answer
Tollette, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 616 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- Howard County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- Howard County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- Howard County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 616 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 Howard County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Tollette's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tollette's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tollette
Each reading below is measured for Tollette itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTollette runs about 241 days between hard freezes (read from Howard County, the closest normal to Tollette) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTollette 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 Tollette is in
Tollette sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tollette's own centroid rather than borrowed from Howard County.
What Grows in Tollette
Every plant below cleared Tollette's own zone 8a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tollette?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Tollette
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tollette. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 11S27W08ADD1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- RAAM EXPRESS STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 11S27W09BCA1Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 11S27W08CBC1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 11S27W08BAA1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 11S27W17DAB1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 11S27W02CCA1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 11S27W02BDD1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 11S27W11BDA1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 11S27W11ACC1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 11S27W20ACA1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- BROWN'S 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tollette'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 Tollette.
Total Sites
247
within ~10 miles of Tollette
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tollette
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tollette
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tollette, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 158 sites within ~10 miles of Tollette. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Tollette
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 Tollette average
Your land is one point inside Tollette
Everything above resolves to Tollette as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 616 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Howard 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 Tollette Average
Tollette Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Tollette
- ●One soil character for all of Tollette
- ●Frost dates read at Tollette's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tollette's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tollette
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tollette, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tollette averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tollette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tollette average
How we know this about Tollette
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 Howard 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 Tollette
When does frost risk typically end in Tollette?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tollette typically lands around Mar 19, 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 Apr 9.
When is the first frost in Tollette?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tollette typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tollette?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tollette sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 1, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tollette?
The federal record around Tollette is a meaningful one — 247 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (158), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Tollette?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tollette's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tollette'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 Tollette’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Tollette's own scale — the 616 acres it covers and 247 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tollette's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 247 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tollette, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tollette's boundary and the 616 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tollette's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tollette has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Howard County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tollette's 616 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Howard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Howard 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 Howard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tollette's 616 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tollette you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 616 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Tollette-wide figureread your own land →
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