Cherry Valley, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cherry Valley, 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 Cherry Valley 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 Cherry Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cherry Valley — the short answer
Cherry Valley, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 490 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- 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
- ~264
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 490 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 Cherry Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cherry Valley's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cherry Valley
Each reading below is measured for Cherry Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCherry Valley runs about 264 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
MeasuredCherry Valley 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 Cherry Valley is in
Cherry Valley sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cherry Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cross County.
What Grows in Cherry Valley
Every plant below cleared Cherry Valley's own zone 8a and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cherry Valley?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (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.
What's on the federal record near Cherry Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cherry Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT&T COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- DENEVAN FLYING SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- BELL, GEORGE L.Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- AGRI AIR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CARWELL ELEVATOR COMPANY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CHERRY VALLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FOOD GIANT SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CIRCLE N 700Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DAN MITCHUSSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FARMERS SUPPLY ASSOCIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 09N03E17DDC1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- CROSS COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cherry Valley'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 Cherry Valley.
Total Sites
33
within ~10 miles of Cherry Valley
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
8 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cherry Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cherry Valley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 25 sites within ~10 miles of Cherry Valley. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cherry Valley
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 Cherry Valley average
Your land is one point inside Cherry Valley
Everything above resolves to Cherry Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 490 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 Cherry Valley Average
Cherry Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cherry Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Cherry Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Cherry Valley's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cherry Valley's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cherry Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cherry Valley, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cherry Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cherry Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cherry Valley average
How we know this about Cherry Valley
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 Cherry Valley’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 Cherry Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Cherry Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cherry Valley typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Cherry Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cherry Valley 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 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cherry Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cherry Valley sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 11, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cherry Valley?
The federal record around Cherry Valley is light — 33 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cherry Valley?
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 Cherry Valley's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cherry Valley'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 Cherry Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cherry Valley's own scale — its own ~264-day season between 28°F freezes, the 490 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cherry Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cherry Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 25 and the ~264-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cherry Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cherry Valley's boundary and the 490 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cherry Valley's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cherry Valley's 490 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cross County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cross 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 Cross County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cherry Valley's 490 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cherry Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 490 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 Cherry Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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