Harrell, 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 Harrell, 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 Harrell 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 Harrell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Harrell — the short answer
Harrell, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 353 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 353 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Calhoun County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Harrell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harrell's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Harrell
Each reading below is measured for Harrell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHarrell runs about 257 days between hard freezes (read from Calhoun County, the closest normal to Harrell) — 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
MeasuredHarrell 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 Harrell is in
Harrell sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Harrell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calhoun County.
What Grows in Harrell
Every plant below cleared Harrell's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Harrell?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Harrell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Harrell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 14S13W12CCB1Nitrate · 500 ft
- JIMMY MARTIN TRUCK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 14S13W11DDB1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 14S13W11DAA1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- ST. FRANCIS MATERIAL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- S & B HOMETOWN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SMITH, LARON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 14S13W01AAA1Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- NUSTAR PIPELINE-ANHYDROUS AMMONIASuperfund · 2.3 mi
- 14S13W03BDB1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 14S12W05DDB1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 14S12W19ABD1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Harrell'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 Harrell.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Harrell
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Harrell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Harrell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Harrell, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 78 sites within ~10 miles of Harrell. 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 Harrell
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 Harrell average
Your land is one point inside Harrell
Everything above resolves to Harrell as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 353 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Calhoun County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Harrell Average
Harrell Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Harrell
- ●One soil character for all of Harrell
- ●Frost dates read at Harrell's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harrell's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Harrell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harrell, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harrell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harrell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harrell average
How we know this about Harrell
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 Calhoun County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Harrell
When does frost risk typically end in Harrell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harrell typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Harrell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Harrell typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Harrell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harrell sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 4, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Harrell?
The federal record around Harrell is a meaningful one — 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (78), 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 Harrell?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Harrell's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harrell'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 Harrell’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Harrell's own scale — the 353 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harrell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Harrell, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Harrell's boundary and the 353 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Harrell's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Harrell has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Calhoun County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Harrell's 353 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calhoun County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calhoun 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 Calhoun County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Harrell's 353 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Harrell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 353 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 Harrell-wide figureread your own land →