Fair Oaks, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Fair Oaks, 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 Fair Oaks 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 Fair Oaks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fair Oaks — the short answer
Fair Oaks, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- 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 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 Fair Oaks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fair Oaks's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fair Oaks
Each reading below is measured for Fair Oaks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFair Oaks runs about 265 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
MeasuredFair Oaks 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 Fair Oaks is in
Fair Oaks sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fair Oaks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cross County.
What Grows in Fair Oaks
Every plant below cleared Fair Oaks's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fair Oaks?
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 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 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 Fair Oaks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fair Oaks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HALSTEAD METAL PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 07N01E05DDA1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- HESS BROTHER'S FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- CLEAN HARBORS-GIBBS FARM GRAINBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- WAL-MART SUPERCENTER 68Brownfields · 3.8 mi
- McCRORY CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- HAMLIN FLYING SERVICE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- TERRA INTERNATIONAL INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- 06N01W10AB1Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- MC CRORY WATERWORKSPFAS · 6.6 mi
- CRS @ CROSS COUNTY ROAD SHOPBrownfields · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fair Oaks'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 Fair Oaks.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fair Oaks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fair Oaks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fair Oaks, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Fair Oaks. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Fair Oaks
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 Fair Oaks average
Your land is one point inside Fair Oaks
Everything above resolves to Fair Oaks 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 town 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 Fair Oaks Average
Fair Oaks Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Fair Oaks
- ●One soil character for all of Fair Oaks
- ●Frost dates read at Fair Oaks's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fair Oaks's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fair Oaks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fair Oaks, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fair Oaks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fair Oaks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fair Oaks average
How we know this about Fair Oaks
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Fair Oaks’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Fair Oaks
When does frost risk typically end in Fair Oaks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fair Oaks 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 Fair Oaks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fair Oaks 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 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fair Oaks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fair Oaks sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 11, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fair Oaks?
The federal record around Fair Oaks is light — 34 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles 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 Fair Oaks?
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 Fair Oaks's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fair Oaks'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 Fair Oaks’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fair Oaks's own scale — its own ~265-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,533 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fair Oaks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fair Oaks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 5 and Nov 25 and the ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fair Oaks, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fair Oaks's boundary and the 1,533 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fair Oaks's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fair Oaks's 1,533 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 Fair Oaks's 1,533 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fair Oaks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,533 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Fair Oaks-wide figureread your own land →
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