Dyer, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Dyer, 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 Dyer 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 Dyer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dyer — the short answer
Dyer, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- 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 Dyer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dyer's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dyer
Each reading below is measured for Dyer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDyer runs about 255 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
MeasuredDyer 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 Dyer is in
Dyer sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dyer's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Crawford County is mostly Boston Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Dyer
Every plant below cleared Dyer's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dyer?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Dyer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dyer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HIGHWAY EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MULBERRY LUMBER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WAL-MART STORE #358Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- UTILITY TRAILER SALES OF NW ARBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- GOOSE CREEK GROCERY & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- KOUNTRY EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- DYER TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #1534Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- TEXACO REFINING & MARKETING INUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SHORT STOP #3Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 09N29W09BCC1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 09N29W08DAA1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dyer'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 Dyer.
Total Sites
195
within ~10 miles of Dyer
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dyer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dyer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dyer, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 108 sites within ~10 miles of Dyer. 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 Dyer
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 Dyer average
Your land is one point inside Dyer
Everything above resolves to Dyer 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 Dyer Average
Dyer Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Dyer
- ●One soil character for all of Dyer
- ●Frost dates read at Dyer's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dyer's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dyer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dyer, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dyer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dyer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dyer average
How we know this about Dyer
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 Dyer’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 Dyer
When does frost risk typically end in Dyer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dyer typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Dyer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dyer typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dyer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dyer sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 6, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dyer?
The federal record around Dyer is a meaningful one — 195 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (108), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Dyer?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dyer's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dyer'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 Dyer’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dyer's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,882 acres it covers and 195 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dyer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dyer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 20 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 195 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dyer, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dyer's boundary and the 1,882 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dyer 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 Dyer's 1,882 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dyer's 1,882 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dyer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,882 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Dyer-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasDyer sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides