Hazen, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Hazen, 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 Hazen 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 Hazen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hazen — the short answer
Hazen, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- Prairie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Prairie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- Prairie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Prairie County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Hazen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hazen's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hazen
Each reading below is measured for Hazen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHazen runs about 274 days between hard freezes (read from Prairie County, the closest normal to Hazen) — 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
MeasuredHazen 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 Hazen is in
Hazen sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hazen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Prairie County.
What Grows in Hazen
Every plant below cleared Hazen's own zone 8a and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hazen?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (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. 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 Hazen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hazen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAZEN SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BOGARD GRAIN AND SEEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HAZEN POWDER PARTS, LLCSuperfund · 0.8 mi
- HAZEN POWDER PARTS, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- HAZEN MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- OMS-12 AUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- AR ARMY NATL GUARD-OMS12ABrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PETRUS CHEV-OLDS. INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- EARL D. STALLINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PROCTOR TIRE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 02N05W19CAA1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 02N05W19CAA2Nitrate · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hazen'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 Hazen.
Total Sites
85
within ~10 miles of Hazen
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hazen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hazen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hazen, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Hazen. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Hazen
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 Hazen average
Your land is one point inside Hazen
Everything above resolves to Hazen as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Prairie County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Hazen Average
Hazen Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hazen
- ●One soil character for all of Hazen
- ●Frost dates read at Hazen's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hazen's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hazen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hazen, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hazen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hazen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hazen average
How we know this about Hazen
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 Prairie 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 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 Hazen
When does frost risk typically end in Hazen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hazen typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Hazen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hazen 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 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hazen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hazen sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 13, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hazen?
The federal record around Hazen is a meaningful one — 85 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Hazen?
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 Hazen's scale — its 8a band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hazen'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 Hazen’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hazen's own scale — the 2,252 acres it covers and 85 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hazen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 85 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hazen, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hazen's boundary and the 2,252 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hazen's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hazen has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Prairie County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hazen's 2,252 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prairie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prairie 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 Prairie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hazen's 2,252 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hazen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,252 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Hazen-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides