Des Arc, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Des Arc, 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 Des Arc 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 Des Arc — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Des Arc — the short answer
Des Arc, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 136 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 136 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 6b is Des Arc's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Des Arc's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Des Arc
Each reading below is measured for Des Arc itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDes Arc runs about 210 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
MeasuredDes Arc sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Des Arc is in
Des Arc sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Des Arc's own centroid rather than borrowed from Iron County.
What Grows in Des Arc
Every plant below cleared Des Arc's own zone 6b and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Des Arc?
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 Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Des Arc
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Des Arc. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Argentiferrous Lead MineMining · 2400 ft
- G.S. ROOFING PRODUCT, INC. GADS HILLToxics Release Inventory · 4.7 mi
- T31N R03E 24Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- ANNAPOLIS LEAD MINESuperfund · 5.4 mi
- ISP MINERALS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- HARRIS LIMESTONE COMPANY - SOLDUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- ANNAPOLISUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- INTERNATIONAL SPECIALITY PRODUCTS INC-ISP MINERAL PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 6.4 mi
- GS ROOFING PRODS CO INCBrownfields · 6.5 mi
- SOUTH IRON R-I SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- Annapolis MineMining · 6.7 mi
- AnnapolisMining · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Des Arc'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 Des Arc.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Des Arc
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Des Arc
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Des Arc, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Des Arc — Mining (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Des Arc
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 Des Arc average
Your land is one point inside Des Arc
Everything above resolves to Des Arc as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 136 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 Des Arc Average
Des Arc Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Des Arc
- ●One soil character for all of Des Arc
- ●Frost dates read at Des Arc's scale: Apr 2 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Des Arc's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Des Arc
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Des Arc, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Des Arc averages can't show:
We read public map data around Des Arc — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Des Arc average
How we know this about Des Arc
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 Des Arc’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 Des Arc
When does frost risk typically end in Des Arc?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Des Arc typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Des Arc?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Des Arc typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Des Arc?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Des Arc sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 15, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Des Arc?
The federal record around Des Arc is a meaningful one — 39 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Mining record about 0.5 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 Des Arc?
From about Sep 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 Oct 29 (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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Des Arc's scale — its 6b band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Des Arc'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 Des Arc’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Des Arc's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 136 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Des Arc's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Des Arc's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Oct 29 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Des Arc, the closest Mining record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Des Arc's boundary and the 136 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Des Arc's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Des Arc's 136 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Iron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Iron County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Iron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Des Arc's 136 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Des Arc you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 136 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.5 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 Des Arc-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Growing region
Nearby growing guides