Mulberry, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Mulberry, 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 Mulberry 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 Mulberry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mulberry — the short answer
Mulberry, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 8a is Mulberry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mulberry's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mulberry
Each reading below is measured for Mulberry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMulberry runs about 255 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
MeasuredMulberry 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 Mulberry is in
Mulberry sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mulberry's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Crawford County is mostly Boston Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mulberry
Every plant below cleared Mulberry's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mulberry?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Mulberry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mulberry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RAYMOND IVEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MULBERRY RIVER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MULBERRY HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MULBERRY MARKET LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MULBERRY EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- LIBERTY FOOD AND GAS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HOME TOWN FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #1534Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- JIMS GROCERY AND GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- DYER TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- GOOSE CREEK GROCERY & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mulberry'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 Mulberry.
Total Sites
136
within ~10 miles of Mulberry
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mulberry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mulberry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mulberry, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Mulberry. 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 Mulberry
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 Mulberry average
Your land is one point inside Mulberry
Everything above resolves to Mulberry as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Mulberry Average
Mulberry Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Mulberry
- ●One soil character for all of Mulberry
- ●Frost dates read at Mulberry's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mulberry's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mulberry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mulberry, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mulberry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mulberry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mulberry average
How we know this about Mulberry
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 Mulberry’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 Mulberry
When does frost risk typically end in Mulberry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mulberry typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Mulberry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mulberry typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mulberry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mulberry sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 6, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mulberry?
The federal record around Mulberry is a meaningful one — 136 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (68), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mulberry?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mulberry's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mulberry'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 Mulberry’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mulberry's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,009 acres it covers and 136 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mulberry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mulberry's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 20 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 136 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mulberry, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mulberry's boundary and the 5,009 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mulberry sits in the Arkansas Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mulberry's 5,009 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mulberry's 5,009 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mulberry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,009 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Mulberry-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasMulberry sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides