Marvell, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Marvell, 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 Marvell 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 Marvell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marvell — the short answer
Marvell, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 279 days between hard freezes, across 919 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
- 919 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 Marvell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marvell's 279-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marvell
Each reading below is measured for Marvell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMarvell runs about 279 days between hard freezes (read from Phillips County, the closest normal to Marvell) — 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
MeasuredMarvell 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 Marvell is in
Marvell sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marvell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Phillips County.
What Grows in Marvell
Every plant below cleared Marvell'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 Marvell?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Marvell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marvell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 01S02E32DDC2Nitrate · 500 ft
- CRISP GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SHADDEN'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SUDDATH'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CARTER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MARVELL FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CAR CAR CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DOUBLE QUICK #94Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PRODUCERS TRACTOR CO.-MARVELLBrownfields · 1900 ft
- ERWIN MOTOR COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- FEDERAL COMPRESS & WAREHOUSE CUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MARVELL SCHOOL DISTRICT #22Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marvell'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 Marvell.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marvell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marvell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marvell, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 37 sites within ~10 miles of Marvell. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Marvell
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 Marvell average
Your land is one point inside Marvell
Everything above resolves to Marvell as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 919 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 Marvell Average
Marvell Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Marvell
- ●One soil character for all of Marvell
- ●Frost dates read at Marvell's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marvell's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marvell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marvell, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marvell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marvell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marvell average
How we know this about Marvell
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 Marvell
When does frost risk typically end in Marvell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marvell 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 Marvell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marvell 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 Marvell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marvell 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 Marvell?
The federal record around Marvell shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Marvell?
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 Marvell's scale — its 8a band and its 279-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marvell'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 Marvell’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Marvell's own scale — the 919 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marvell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marvell, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marvell's boundary and the 919 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~279-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marvell's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Marvell 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 Marvell's 919 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 Marvell's 919 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marvell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 919 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Marvell-wide figureread your own land →
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