Mellwood, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mellwood, 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 Mellwood 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 Mellwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mellwood — the short answer
Mellwood, Arkansas: USDA zone 8b, about 279 days between hard freezes, across 568 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- 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
- Town area
- 568 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 8b is Mellwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mellwood's 279-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mellwood
Each reading below is measured for Mellwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMellwood runs about 279 days between hard freezes (read from Phillips County, the closest normal to Mellwood) — 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
MeasuredMellwood sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Mellwood is in
Mellwood sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mellwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Phillips County.
What Grows in Mellwood
Every plant below cleared Mellwood's own zone 8b and its 279-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mellwood?
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 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 Mellwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mellwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MELLWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MELLWOOD GROCERY, JAMES H BROWUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FERGUSON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- PRODUCERS TRACTOR COMPANY INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- 05S01W36DDD1Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- ELAINE SCHOOL DISTRICT #30Underground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- GRIFFIN GRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- BRITT FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- JERRY JOHNSTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- JOHNSTON'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- BARNES, JERRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- RHONDA CRAVENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mellwood'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 Mellwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mellwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mellwood
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Mellwood
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 Mellwood average
Your land is one point inside Mellwood
Everything above resolves to Mellwood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 568 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Phillips County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Mellwood Average
Mellwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Mellwood
- ●One soil character for all of Mellwood
- ●Frost dates read at Mellwood's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mellwood's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mellwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mellwood, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mellwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mellwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mellwood average
How we know this about Mellwood
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 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 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 Mellwood
When does frost risk typically end in Mellwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mellwood 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 Mellwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mellwood 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 Mellwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mellwood 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 Mellwood?
The federal record around Mellwood is light — 23 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (13), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles 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 Mellwood?
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 Mellwood's scale — its 8b band and its 279-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mellwood'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 Mellwood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mellwood's own scale — the 568 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mellwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mellwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mellwood's boundary and the 568 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~279-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mellwood's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mellwood 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 Mellwood's 568 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 Mellwood's 568 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mellwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 568 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Mellwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides