Ward, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Ward, 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 Ward 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 Ward — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ward — the short answer
Ward, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Ward's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ward's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ward
Each reading below is measured for Ward itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWard runs about 259 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredWard 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 Ward is in
Ward sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ward's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lonoke County.
What Grows in Ward
Every plant below cleared Ward's own zone 8a and its 259-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ward?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Ward
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ward. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SYLVANIA GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- AUSTIN, JIMMY,FUEL & FIRE STARUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FLASH MARKET #134Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- NEW BANK LOCATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JERRY'S PLUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BIG RED #139Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- UNIVERSAL ANTENNA MFG INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- GARDEN PLACE GROCERY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- DUDE'S PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SHERIDAN'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- WARD EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ward'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 Ward.
Total Sites
188
within ~10 miles of Ward
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ward
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ward
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ward, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ward — PFAS (5 sites) and Nitrate (50 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ward
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 Ward average
Your land is one point inside Ward
Everything above resolves to Ward as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 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 Ward Average
Ward Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ward
- ●One soil character for all of Ward
- ●Frost dates read at Ward's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ward's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ward
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ward, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ward averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ward — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ward average
How we know this about Ward
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 Ward’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 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 Ward
When does frost risk typically end in Ward?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ward typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Ward?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ward typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 259 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ward?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ward sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 8, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ward?
The federal record around Ward is a meaningful one — 188 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (100), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Ward?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ward's scale — its 8a band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ward'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 Ward’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ward's own scale — its own ~259-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,897 acres it covers and 188 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ward's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ward's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 22 and the ~259-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 188 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ward, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ward's boundary and the 2,897 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ward's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ward's 2,897 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lonoke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lonoke 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 Lonoke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ward's 2,897 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ward you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,897 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Ward-wide figureread your own land →
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