Bigelow, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bigelow, 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 Bigelow 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 Bigelow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bigelow — the short answer
Bigelow, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 600 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 600 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 Bigelow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bigelow's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bigelow
Each reading below is measured for Bigelow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBigelow runs about 252 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
MeasuredBigelow 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 Bigelow is in
Bigelow sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bigelow's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Perry County is mostly Ouachita Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bigelow
Every plant below cleared Bigelow's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bigelow?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 Bigelow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bigelow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BIGELOW SCHOOL BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 04N15W02CCB1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 05N15W33BAD1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- THEARL TIRE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- 04N15W12DBB1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 04N15W01ADB1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 05N14W31BCB1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 05N14W31CDD1Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 05N15W25DDA1Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 05N14W30CBC1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- 05N14W30CCA1Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 05N15W15DDD1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bigelow'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 Bigelow.
Total Sites
115
within ~10 miles of Bigelow
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bigelow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bigelow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bigelow, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Bigelow. 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 Bigelow
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 Bigelow average
Your land is one point inside Bigelow
Everything above resolves to Bigelow as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 600 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 Bigelow Average
Bigelow Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bigelow
- ●One soil character for all of Bigelow
- ●Frost dates read at Bigelow's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bigelow's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bigelow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bigelow, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bigelow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bigelow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bigelow average
How we know this about Bigelow
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 Bigelow’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 Bigelow
When does frost risk typically end in Bigelow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bigelow typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Bigelow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bigelow typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bigelow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bigelow sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 3, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bigelow?
The federal record around Bigelow shows 115 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Bigelow?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bigelow's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bigelow'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 Bigelow’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bigelow's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 600 acres it covers and 115 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bigelow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bigelow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 17 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 115 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bigelow, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bigelow's boundary and the 600 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bigelow sits in the Arkansas Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bigelow's 600 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perry 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 Perry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bigelow's 600 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bigelow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 600 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Bigelow-wide figureread your own land →