Hensley, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Hensley, 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 Hensley 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 Hensley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hensley — the short answer
Hensley, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 655 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 655 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 Hensley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hensley's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hensley
Each reading below is measured for Hensley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHensley runs about 270 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
MeasuredHensley 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 Hensley is in
Hensley sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hensley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pulaski County is mostly Ouachita Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hensley
Every plant below cleared Hensley's own zone 8a and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hensley?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Hensley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hensley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHERIDAN LAND & TIMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 02S11W29AAA2Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- ED LINNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WALDERNS FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- FIRST BAPTIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WOODSON CASH STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WOODSON CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 03S11W09BCB1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- GAS-MART STATION #8013Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- TERRI FOODS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- 02S11W05ACD1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hensley'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 Hensley.
Total Sites
129
within ~10 miles of Hensley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hensley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hensley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hensley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hensley — Nitrate (60 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hensley
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 Hensley average
Your land is one point inside Hensley
Everything above resolves to Hensley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 655 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 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 Hensley Average
Hensley Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hensley
- ●One soil character for all of Hensley
- ●Frost dates read at Hensley's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hensley's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hensley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hensley, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hensley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hensley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hensley average
How we know this about Hensley
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 Hensley’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 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 Hensley
When does frost risk typically end in Hensley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hensley typically lands around Mar 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Hensley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hensley typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hensley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hensley sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 12, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hensley?
The federal record around Hensley shows 129 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hensley?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hensley's scale — its 8a band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hensley'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 Hensley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hensley's own scale — its own ~270-day season between 28°F freezes, the 655 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hensley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hensley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 1 and Nov 26 and the ~270-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hensley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hensley's boundary and the 655 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hensley sits in the South Central Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hensley's 655 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pulaski County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pulaski 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 Pulaski County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hensley's 655 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hensley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 655 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Hensley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasHensley sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides