Perryville, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Perryville, 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 Perryville 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 Perryville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Perryville — the short answer
Perryville, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Perryville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Perryville's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Perryville
Each reading below is measured for Perryville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPerryville runs about 241 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
MeasuredPerryville 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 Perryville is in
Perryville sits in the Ouachita Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Perryville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Perry County.
What Grows in Perryville
Every plant below cleared Perryville's own zone 8a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Perryville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Perryville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Perryville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BIG STAR SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- PERRYVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MARKS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GARDNER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HEIFER PROJECT INTERNATIONALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BILLY WELL LOGGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PERRY CO OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE #3616Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BATTERY DOCTORS OF ARKANSAS, LLCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- PAT'S PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DOUBLEBEES #134Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BATTERY DOCTORS OF ARKANSASBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Perryville'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 Perryville.
Total Sites
116
within ~10 miles of Perryville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Perryville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Perryville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Perryville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 72 sites within ~10 miles of Perryville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Perryville
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 Perryville average
Your land is one point inside Perryville
Everything above resolves to Perryville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Perryville Average
Perryville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Perryville
- ●One soil character for all of Perryville
- ●Frost dates read at Perryville's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Perryville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Perryville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Perryville, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Perryville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Perryville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Perryville average
How we know this about Perryville
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 Perryville’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 Perryville
When does frost risk typically end in Perryville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Perryville typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Perryville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Perryville typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Perryville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Perryville sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Oct 29, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Perryville?
The federal record around Perryville shows 116 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (72), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Perryville?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Perryville's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Perryville'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 Perryville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Perryville's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,732 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Perryville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Perryville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 12 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Perryville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Perryville's boundary and the 2,732 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Perryville's own centroid, the Ouachita MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Perryville's 2,732 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 Perryville's 2,732 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Perryville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,732 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Perryville-wide figureread your own land →