Holly Grove, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Holly Grove, 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 Holly Grove 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 Holly Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Holly Grove — the short answer
Holly Grove, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 643 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 24
- Monroe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Monroe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- Monroe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 643 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 Monroe County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Holly Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holly Grove's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Holly Grove
Each reading below is measured for Holly Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHolly Grove runs about 277 days between hard freezes (read from Monroe County, the closest normal to Holly Grove) — 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
MeasuredHolly Grove 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 Holly Grove is in
Holly Grove sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Holly Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Holly Grove
Every plant below cleared Holly Grove's own zone 8a and its 277-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Holly Grove?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 24 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Holly Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Holly Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAPPY MART-HOLLY GROVE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 01S02W22ACC1Nitrate · 1600 ft
- HOLLY GROVE SCHOOL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SMITH'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 01S02W11BCC1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 01S02W20BAA1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- CALLOWAY BROS. FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- WHEATLEY GRAIN DRYING CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- C. J. JACKSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- DEEP ELM GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- SWEAT'S CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- 01N02W22DAB1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Holly Grove'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 Holly Grove.
Total Sites
63
within ~10 miles of Holly Grove
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Holly Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Holly Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Holly Grove, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Holly Grove. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Holly Grove
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 Holly Grove average
Your land is one point inside Holly Grove
Everything above resolves to Holly Grove as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 643 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Monroe 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 Holly Grove Average
Holly Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Holly Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Holly Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Holly Grove's scale: Feb 24 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holly Grove's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Holly Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holly Grove, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holly Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holly Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holly Grove average
How we know this about Holly Grove
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 Monroe 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 Holly Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Holly Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holly Grove typically lands around Feb 24, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Holly Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Holly Grove 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 277 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Holly Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holly Grove sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Feb 24 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 17 to Nov 14, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holly Grove?
The federal record around Holly Grove shows 63 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (35), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Holly Grove?
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 Holly Grove's scale — its 8a band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holly Grove'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 Holly Grove’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Holly Grove's own scale — the 643 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holly Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Holly Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Holly Grove's boundary and the 643 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Holly Grove's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Holly Grove has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Monroe County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Holly Grove's 643 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Holly Grove's 643 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Holly Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 643 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 Holly Grove-wide figureread your own land →
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