Hackett, 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.
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 Hackett, 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 Hackett 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 Hackett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hackett — the short answer
Hackett, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 922 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
- 922 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 Hackett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hackett's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hackett
Each reading below is measured for Hackett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHackett 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
MeasuredHackett 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 Hackett is in
Hackett sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hackett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sebastian County.
What Grows in Hackett
Every plant below cleared Hackett'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 Hackett?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. 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 Hackett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hackett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 06N32W21ADD1Nitrate · 450 ft
- 06N32W22BCC1Nitrate · 650 ft
- HACKETT PUBLIC SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 06N32W21AAA1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- HUG & BISCUITSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PHIL'S FOOD CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HACKETT C.D.O.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 06N32W21ACC1Nitrate · 2200 ft
- 06N32W21CBD1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- IBISON, GENEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 06N32W20DCB1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- JOHNS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hackett'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 Hackett.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hackett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hackett
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hackett, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Hackett. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Hackett
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 Hackett average
Your land is one point inside Hackett
Everything above resolves to Hackett as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 922 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 Hackett Average
Hackett Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hackett
- ●One soil character for all of Hackett
- ●Frost dates read at Hackett's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hackett's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hackett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hackett, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hackett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hackett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hackett average
How we know this about Hackett
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 Hackett’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 Hackett
When does frost risk typically end in Hackett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hackett 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 Hackett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hackett 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 Hackett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hackett 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 Hackett?
The federal record around Hackett is a meaningful one — 274 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (164), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hackett?
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 Hackett's scale — its 8a band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hackett'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 Hackett’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hackett's own scale — its own ~263-day season between 28°F freezes, the 922 acres it covers and 274 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hackett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hackett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 5 and Nov 23 and the ~263-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 274 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hackett, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hackett's boundary and the 922 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 Hackett's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hackett's 922 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sebastian County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sebastian 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 Sebastian County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hackett's 922 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hackett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 922 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Hackett-wide figureread your own land →
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