Diaz, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Diaz, 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 Diaz 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 Diaz — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Diaz — the short answer
Diaz, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- 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 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Diaz's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Diaz's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Diaz
Each reading below is measured for Diaz itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDiaz runs about 263 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
MeasuredDiaz 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 Diaz is in
Diaz sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Diaz's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Diaz
Every plant below cleared Diaz'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 Diaz?
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 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 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Diaz
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Diaz. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AMERICAN LANTERN COToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- MASSEY'S GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JR FOOD MART 124Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- IDEAL DISTRIBUTING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NORANDAL USA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 12N03W25BDC1Nitrate · 1600 ft
- NEWPORT AREA HDQTRSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GRANGES AMERICAS INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- GRANGES AMERICASBrownfields · 2000 ft
- DIAZ REFINERY - PRP COMMITTEE SITE TRUSTBrownfields · 2600 ft
- HARSCO METALS-ASAToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- WAL-MART STORE #18Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Diaz'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 Diaz.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Diaz
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Diaz
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Diaz, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Diaz. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Diaz
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 Diaz average
Your land is one point inside Diaz
Everything above resolves to Diaz as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Diaz Average
Diaz Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Diaz
- ●One soil character for all of Diaz
- ●Frost dates read at Diaz's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Diaz's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Diaz
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Diaz, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Diaz averages can't show:
We read public map data around Diaz — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Diaz average
How we know this about Diaz
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 Diaz’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 Diaz
When does frost risk typically end in Diaz?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Diaz 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 Diaz?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Diaz typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Diaz?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Diaz sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 9, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Diaz?
The federal record around Diaz is a meaningful one — 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles 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 Diaz?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Diaz's scale — its 8a band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Diaz'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 Diaz’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Diaz's own scale — its own ~263-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,788 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Diaz's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Diaz's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 5 and Nov 23 and the ~263-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Diaz, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Diaz's boundary and the 3,788 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 Diaz's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Diaz's 3,788 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Diaz's 3,788 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Diaz you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,788 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Diaz-wide figureread your own land →
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