Dierks, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dierks, 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 Dierks 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 Dierks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dierks — the short answer
Dierks, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Dierks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dierks's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dierks
Each reading below is measured for Dierks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDierks runs about 241 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
MeasuredDierks 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 Dierks is in
Dierks sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dierks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Howard County.
What Grows in Dierks
Every plant below cleared Dierks's own zone 8a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dierks?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Dierks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dierks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JR FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- DANNY'S PATRIOT SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- ARKANSAS FORESTRY COMMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- DIERKS LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CANNON PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- DIERKS SCHOOL DISTRICT #2Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- DIERKS PORTABLE READY MIXToxics Release Inventory · 850 ft
- CHARLES MOORE LOGGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- UMPIRE FORESTRY DISTRICT OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- EZ MART #4450Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- QUICK TRACKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DIERKS EXCESS #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dierks'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 Dierks.
Total Sites
33
within ~10 miles of Dierks
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dierks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dierks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dierks, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dierks — Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites) and Mining (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Dierks
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 Dierks average
Your land is one point inside Dierks
Everything above resolves to Dierks as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Dierks Average
Dierks Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Dierks
- ●One soil character for all of Dierks
- ●Frost dates read at Dierks's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dierks's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dierks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dierks, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dierks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dierks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dierks average
How we know this about Dierks
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 Dierks’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 Dierks
When does frost risk typically end in Dierks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dierks typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Dierks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dierks typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dierks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dierks sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 1, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dierks?
The federal record around Dierks shows 33 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dierks?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dierks's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dierks'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 Dierks’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dierks's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,228 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dierks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dierks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 15 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dierks, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dierks's boundary and the 1,228 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dierks's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dierks's 1,228 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Howard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Howard 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 Howard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dierks's 1,228 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dierks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,228 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 Dierks-wide figureread your own land →
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