Guy, 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.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Guy, 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 Guy 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 Guy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Guy — the short answer
Guy, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 5K 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Guy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Guy's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Guy
Each reading below is measured for Guy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGuy runs about 267 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
MeasuredGuy 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 Guy is in
Guy sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Guy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Faulkner County.
What Grows in Guy
Every plant below cleared Guy's own zone 8a and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Guy?
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 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Guy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Guy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GUY TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- THUNDERBIRD'S CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- UNCLE SAM'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CHAMPION TECHNOLOGIES INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CHAMPION TECHNOLOGIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- 08N12W28DBB01Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 08N12W04DAC01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- SEPCO SOUTHWESTERN ENERGY PRODUCTION COMPANY- DAMASCUS SUPPLY BASEBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- SOLUTHERN FLUID SOLUTIONS, LLCBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- D & JUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- FAULKNER COUNTY TRACT 30Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- THOMAS PETROLEUM LLC ARKANSASBrownfields · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Guy'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 Guy.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Guy
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Guy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Guy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Guy, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Guy. 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 Guy
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 Guy average
Your land is one point inside Guy
Everything above resolves to Guy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Guy Average
Guy Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Guy
- ●One soil character for all of Guy
- ●Frost dates read at Guy's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Guy's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Guy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Guy, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Guy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Guy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Guy average
How we know this about Guy
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 Guy’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 Guy
When does frost risk typically end in Guy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Guy 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 Guy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Guy typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Guy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Guy sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 13, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Guy?
The federal record around Guy shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Guy?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Guy's scale — its 8a band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Guy'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 Guy’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Guy's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,565 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Guy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Guy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 5 and Nov 27 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Guy, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Guy's boundary and the 4,565 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Guy's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Guy's 4,565 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Faulkner County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Faulkner 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 Faulkner County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Guy's 4,565 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Guy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,565 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Guy-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasGuy sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides