Haynes, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Haynes, 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 Haynes 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 Haynes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Haynes — the short answer
Haynes, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 223 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- Lee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Lee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- Lee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 223 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 Lee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Haynes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Haynes's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Haynes
Each reading below is measured for Haynes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHaynes runs about 273 days between hard freezes (read from Lee County, the closest normal to Haynes) — 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
MeasuredHaynes 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 Haynes is in
Haynes sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Haynes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lee County.
What Grows in Haynes
Every plant below cleared Haynes's own zone 8a and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Haynes?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Haynes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Haynes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAYNES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- KERR-MCGEE #6404Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TYSON SEED CLEANING PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 03N03E22ABB1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 04N03E29BCC1Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- FORREST CITY MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 03N03E28CDB1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 04N03E25BAA1Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- FOREMOST DAIRIES, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- O. J. GANDY, JR. FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- AHTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- FROST FLYING MAINTENANCEBrownfields · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Haynes'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 Haynes.
Total Sites
215
within ~10 miles of Haynes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Haynes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Haynes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Haynes, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 143 sites within ~10 miles of Haynes. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Haynes
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 Haynes average
Your land is one point inside Haynes
Everything above resolves to Haynes as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 223 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lee 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 Haynes Average
Haynes Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Haynes
- ●One soil character for all of Haynes
- ●Frost dates read at Haynes's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Haynes's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Haynes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Haynes, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Haynes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Haynes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Haynes average
How we know this about Haynes
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 Lee 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 Haynes
When does frost risk typically end in Haynes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Haynes typically lands around Feb 28, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Haynes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Haynes typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Haynes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Haynes sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 14, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Haynes?
The federal record around Haynes is a meaningful one — 215 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (143), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Haynes?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Haynes's scale — its 8a band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Haynes'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 Haynes’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Haynes's own scale — the 223 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Haynes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Haynes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Haynes's boundary and the 223 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Haynes's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Haynes has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Haynes's 223 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lee 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 Lee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Haynes's 223 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Haynes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 223 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Haynes-wide figureread your own land →
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