Perry, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Perry, 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 Perry 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 Perry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Perry — the short answer
Perry, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 449 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 449 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 Perry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Perry's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Perry
Each reading below is measured for Perry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPerry runs about 249 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
MeasuredPerry 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 Perry is in
Perry sits in the Ouachita Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Perry's own centroid rather than borrowed from Perry County.
What Grows in Perry
Every plant below cleared Perry's own zone 8a and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Perry?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Perry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Perry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DJ'S IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- LITTLE ROCK AND WESTERN RAILROADBrownfields · 950 ft
- 05N17W27DBB1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- BIG STAR SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- PERRYVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- MARKS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- GARDNER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- HEIFER PROJECT INTERNATIONALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- PERRY CO OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- BILLY WELL LOGGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE #3616Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- BATTERY DOCTORS OF ARKANSAS, LLCBrownfields · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Perry'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 Perry.
Total Sites
206
within ~10 miles of Perry
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Perry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Perry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Perry, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 98 sites within ~10 miles of Perry. 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 Perry
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 Perry average
Your land is one point inside Perry
Everything above resolves to Perry as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 449 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 Perry Average
Perry Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Perry
- ●One soil character for all of Perry
- ●Frost dates read at Perry's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Perry's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Perry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Perry, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Perry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Perry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Perry average
How we know this about Perry
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 Perry’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 Perry
When does frost risk typically end in Perry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Perry typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Perry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Perry typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Perry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Perry sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 3, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Perry?
The federal record around Perry is a meaningful one — 206 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (98), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Perry?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Perry's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Perry'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 Perry’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Perry's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 449 acres it covers and 206 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Perry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Perry's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 17 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 206 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Perry, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Perry's boundary and the 449 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Perry's own centroid, the Ouachita MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Perry's 449 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perry 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 Perry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Perry's 449 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Perry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 449 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 Perry-wide figureread your own land →