Banks, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Banks, 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 Banks 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 Banks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Banks — the short answer
Banks, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 241 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Bradley County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Bradley County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- Bradley County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 241 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 Bradley County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Banks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Banks's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Banks
Each reading below is measured for Banks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBanks runs about 263 days between hard freezes (read from Bradley County, the closest normal to Banks) — 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
MeasuredBanks 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 Banks is in
Banks sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Banks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bradley County.
What Grows in Banks
Every plant below cleared Banks's own zone 8a and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Banks?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Banks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Banks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JEFF'S ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BANKS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- 13S11W17CCD2Nitrate · 1000 ft
- 13S11W17CBD2Nitrate · 1400 ft
- MOSELEY'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 13S11W32CDB1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 13S11W02CCC1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 14S11W06DDD1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 13S12W34CDD1Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 13S11W01DAC1Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- AKIN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- 12S12W26BAC2Nitrate · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Banks'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 Banks.
Total Sites
85
within ~10 miles of Banks
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Banks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Banks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Banks, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 70 sites within ~10 miles of Banks. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Banks
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 Banks average
Your land is one point inside Banks
Everything above resolves to Banks as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 241 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bradley 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 Banks Average
Banks Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Banks
- ●One soil character for all of Banks
- ●Frost dates read at Banks's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Banks's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Banks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Banks, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Banks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Banks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Banks average
How we know this about Banks
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 Bradley 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 Banks
When does frost risk typically end in Banks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Banks typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Banks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Banks typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Banks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Banks sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 7, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Banks?
The federal record around Banks shows 85 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Banks?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Banks's scale — its 8a band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Banks'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 Banks’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Banks's own scale — the 241 acres it covers and 85 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Banks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 85 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Banks, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Banks's boundary and the 241 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Banks's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Banks has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bradley County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Banks's 241 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bradley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bradley 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 Bradley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Banks's 241 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Banks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 241 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Banks-wide figureread your own land →