Coal Hill, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Coal Hill, 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 Coal Hill 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 Coal Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Coal Hill — the short answer
Coal Hill, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Coal Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coal Hill's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coal Hill
Each reading below is measured for Coal Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCoal Hill runs about 251 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
MeasuredCoal Hill 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 Coal Hill is in
Coal Hill sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Coal Hill's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Johnson County is mostly Boston Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Coal Hill
Every plant below cleared Coal Hill's own zone 8a and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coal Hill?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Coal Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coal Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RIVER VALLEY TRACTOR CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CARTER, LOISUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- VILLAGE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MENA LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BEN'S SUPER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #17958Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PEFFLEY, JOHNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SULLIVAN SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- FERRELL'S GROCERY AND STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 09N25W27BDD1Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 09N25W08BBC1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 09N25W33ABD1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coal Hill'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 Coal Hill.
Total Sites
215
within ~10 miles of Coal Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coal Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coal Hill
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coal Hill, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 130 sites within ~10 miles of Coal Hill. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Coal Hill
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 Coal Hill average
Your land is one point inside Coal Hill
Everything above resolves to Coal Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Coal Hill Average
Coal Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Coal Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Coal Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Coal Hill's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coal Hill's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coal Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coal Hill, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coal Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coal Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coal Hill average
How we know this about Coal Hill
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 Coal Hill’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 Coal Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Coal Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coal Hill typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Coal Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coal Hill typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coal Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coal Hill sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 5, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coal Hill?
The federal record around Coal Hill is a meaningful one — 215 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (130), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Coal Hill?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coal Hill's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coal Hill'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 Coal Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Coal Hill's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,795 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coal Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coal Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 19 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coal Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coal Hill's boundary and the 1,795 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Coal Hill 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 Coal Hill's 1,795 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Johnson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Johnson 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 Johnson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coal Hill's 1,795 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coal Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,795 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 Coal Hill-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides