Marshall, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Marshall, 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 Marshall 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 Marshall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Marshall — the short answer
Marshall, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Marshall's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marshall's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marshall
Each reading below is measured for Marshall itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarshall runs about 231 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
MeasuredMarshall 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 Marshall is in
Marshall sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marshall's own centroid rather than borrowed from Searcy County.
What Grows in Marshall
Every plant below cleared Marshall's own zone 7b and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marshall?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Marshall
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marshall. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GK STATION & PAWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FERGUSON'S SUPERETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- BRANSCUM & HARNESS LUMBER CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- HARP'S FOOD STORE #188Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GARRISON SERVICE CENTER #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- GARRISON FINA STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CIRCLE K #37Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MARSHALL TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- UNIVERSAL PULTRUSIONS, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- MARSHALL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 15N16W25DBD1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- CANNAN GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marshall'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 Marshall.
Total Sites
68
within ~10 miles of Marshall
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marshall
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marshall
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marshall, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Marshall — Mining (6 sites) and Nitrate (20 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Marshall
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 Marshall average
Your land is one point inside Marshall
Everything above resolves to Marshall as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 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 Marshall Average
Marshall Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Marshall
- ●One soil character for all of Marshall
- ●Frost dates read at Marshall's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marshall's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marshall
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marshall, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marshall averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marshall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marshall average
How we know this about Marshall
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 Marshall’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 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 Marshall
When does frost risk typically end in Marshall?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marshall typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 14.
When is the first frost in Marshall?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marshall typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marshall?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marshall sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 27, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marshall?
The federal record around Marshall shows 68 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), 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 Marshall?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marshall's scale — its 7b band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marshall'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 Marshall’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Marshall's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,611 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marshall's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marshall's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 10 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marshall, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marshall's boundary and the 2,611 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marshall's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marshall's 2,611 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Searcy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Searcy 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 Searcy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marshall's 2,611 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marshall you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,611 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 Marshall-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Growing region