Birdsong, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Birdsong, 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 Birdsong 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 Birdsong — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Birdsong — the short answer
Birdsong, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 129 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 129 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 Birdsong's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Birdsong's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Birdsong
Each reading below is measured for Birdsong itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBirdsong runs about 265 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredBirdsong 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 Birdsong is in
Birdsong sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Birdsong's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mississippi County.
What Grows in Birdsong
Every plant below cleared Birdsong's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Birdsong?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Birdsong
Survey cells within 31 miles of Birdsong checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 201 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Birdsong
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Birdsong. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 10N08E17CAA1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- BANKS COMPANY FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- 10N08E22ABB1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- MCCOY'S BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- 10N08E35DBD1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- WHITTON STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- 10N07E22ADD1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 09N08E11BCB1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- FRENCHMAN'S BAYOU GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- AHTD GILMORE 110401 TRACT 2XUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Birdsong'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 Birdsong.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Birdsong
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Birdsong
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Birdsong
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Birdsong, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Birdsong. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Birdsong
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 Birdsong average
Your land is one point inside Birdsong
Everything above resolves to Birdsong as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 129 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 Birdsong Average
Birdsong Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Birdsong
- ●One soil character for all of Birdsong
- ●Frost dates read at Birdsong's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Birdsong's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Birdsong
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Birdsong, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Birdsong averages can't show:
We read public map data around Birdsong — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Birdsong average
How we know this about Birdsong
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 Birdsong’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 Birdsong
When does frost risk typically end in Birdsong?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Birdsong typically lands around Mar 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Birdsong?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Birdsong typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Birdsong?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Birdsong sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 11, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Birdsong?
The federal record around Birdsong shows 91 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.9 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 Birdsong?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Birdsong's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Birdsong'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 Birdsong’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Birdsong's own scale — its own ~265-day season between 28°F freezes, the 129 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Birdsong's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Birdsong's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 5 and Nov 25 and the ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Birdsong, the closest Nitrate record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Birdsong's boundary and the 129 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Birdsong's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Birdsong checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Birdsong's 129 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mississippi County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mississippi 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 Mississippi County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Birdsong's 129 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Birdsong you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 129 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.9 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 Birdsong-wide figureread your own land →
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