Higden, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Higden, 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 Higden 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 Higden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Higden — the short answer
Higden, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 310 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 310 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 7b is Higden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Higden's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Higden
Each reading below is measured for Higden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHigden runs about 243 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredHigden sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Higden is in
Higden sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Higden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cleburne County.
What Grows in Higden
Every plant below cleared Higden's own zone 7b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Higden?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Higden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Higden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J AND S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- HIGDEN 66Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- LACEY'S NARROWS MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- QUIK MART #7Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WATSON'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GREERS FERRY, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- J.B.'S PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- SHORT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- WEST SIDE SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- WESTSIDE PUBLIC SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- EDGEMONT GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Higden'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 Higden.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Higden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Higden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Higden, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 33 sites within ~10 miles of Higden. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Higden
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 Higden average
Your land is one point inside Higden
Everything above resolves to Higden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 310 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 Higden Average
Higden Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Higden
- ●One soil character for all of Higden
- ●Frost dates read at Higden's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Higden's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Higden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Higden, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Higden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Higden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Higden average
How we know this about Higden
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 Higden’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 Higden
When does frost risk typically end in Higden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Higden typically lands around Mar 18, 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 Apr 8.
When is the first frost in Higden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Higden typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Higden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Higden sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 2, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Higden?
The federal record around Higden is light — 44 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Higden?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Higden's scale — its 7b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Higden'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 Higden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Higden's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 310 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Higden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Higden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 16 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Higden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Higden's boundary and the 310 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Higden's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Higden's 310 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cleburne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cleburne 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 Cleburne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Higden's 310 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Higden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 310 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 Higden-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasHigden sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides