Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Helena-West Helena, 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 Helena-West Helena 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 Helena-West Helena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Helena-West Helena — the short answer
Helena-West Helena, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 279 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Phillips County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Phillips County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~279
- Phillips County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Phillips County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Helena-West Helena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Helena-West Helena's 279-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Helena-West Helena
Each reading below is measured for Helena-West Helena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHelena-West Helena runs about 279 days between hard freezes (read from Phillips County, the closest normal to Helena-West Helena) — 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
MeasuredHelena-West Helena 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 Helena-West Helena is in
Helena-West Helena sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Helena-West Helena's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Phillips County is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Helena-West Helena
Every plant below cleared Helena-West Helena's own zone 8a and its 279-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Helena-West Helena?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Helena-West Helena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Helena-West Helena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOUBLE QUICK #90Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MIDLAND HEIGHTS 76Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HELENA SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PHILLIPS COUNTY COMM. COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- M & M MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SOUTH DELTA AVIATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FLASH MARKET #22Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SOUTHWESTERN BELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CHIN, M. H.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TWO STATE MONUMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HELENA REGIONAL MED. CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Helena-West Helena'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 Helena-West Helena.
Total Sites
186
within ~10 miles of Helena-West Helena
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Helena-West Helena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Helena-West Helena
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Helena-West Helena, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Helena-West Helena — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (17 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Helena-West Helena
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 Helena-West Helena average
Your land is one point inside Helena-West Helena
Everything above resolves to Helena-West Helena as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Phillips 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 Helena-West Helena Average
Helena-West Helena Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Helena-West Helena
- ●One soil character for all of Helena-West Helena
- ●Frost dates read at Helena-West Helena's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Helena-West Helena's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Helena-West Helena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Helena-West Helena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Helena-West Helena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Helena-West Helena average
How we know this about Helena-West Helena
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 Phillips 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 Helena-West Helena
When does frost risk typically end in Helena-West Helena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Helena-West Helena typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Helena-West Helena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Helena-West Helena typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 279 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Helena-West Helena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Helena-West Helena sees about 279 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 15, about 244 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Helena-West Helena?
The federal record around Helena-West Helena is a meaningful one — 186 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Helena-West Helena?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Helena-West Helena's scale — its 8a band and its 279-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Helena-West Helena'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 Helena-West Helena’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Helena-West Helena's own scale — the 8,393 acres it covers and 186 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Helena-West Helena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 186 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Helena-West Helena, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Helena-West Helena's boundary and the 8,393 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~279-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Helena-West Helena sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Helena-West Helena has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Phillips County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Helena-West Helena's 8,393 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Phillips County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Phillips 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 Phillips County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Helena-West Helena's 8,393 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Helena-West Helena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,393 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Helena-West Helena-wide figureread your own land →