Perla, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Perla, 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 Perla 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 Perla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Perla — the short answer
Perla, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 616 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- 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
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 616 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 Perla's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Perla's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Perla
Each reading below is measured for Perla itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPerla runs about 258 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
MeasuredPerla 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 Perla is in
Perla sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Perla's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hot Spring County is mostly Ouachita Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Perla
Every plant below cleared Perla's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Perla?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (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 Perla
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Perla. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GEORGIA-PACIFIC CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ACME BRICK CO PERLAToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- CLIFT TRUCK LINE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ACME BRICK CO - DRAYAGE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ACME BRICK COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 04S17W24ACC2Nitrate · 2300 ft
- 04S16W19BCD1Nitrate · 2400 ft
- DOYLES CORNER MART LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ACME BRICK CO. - PERLA WEST GAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AMERICAN ONCOLOGY PARTNERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- HSC MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ENABLE GAS TRANSMISSION, LLC- PERLA TRAINING CENTERBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Perla'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 Perla.
Total Sites
208
within ~10 miles of Perla
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Perla
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Perla
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Perla, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Perla — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Perla
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 Perla average
Your land is one point inside Perla
Everything above resolves to Perla as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 616 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 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 Perla Average
Perla Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Perla
- ●One soil character for all of Perla
- ●Frost dates read at Perla's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Perla's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Perla
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Perla, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Perla averages can't show:
We read public map data around Perla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Perla average
How we know this about Perla
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 Perla’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 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 Perla
When does frost risk typically end in Perla?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Perla typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Perla?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Perla 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 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Perla?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Perla sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 6, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Perla?
The federal record around Perla is a meaningful one — 208 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (106), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Perla?
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 Perla's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Perla'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 Perla’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Perla's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 616 acres it covers and 208 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Perla's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Perla's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 20 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 208 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Perla, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Perla's boundary and the 616 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Perla sits in the South Central Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Perla's 616 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hot Spring County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hot Spring 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 Hot Spring County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Perla's 616 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Perla you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 616 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 Perla-wide figureread your own land →
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