Shannon Hills, 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.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Shannon Hills, 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 Shannon Hills 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 Shannon Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shannon Hills — the short answer
Shannon Hills, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Shannon Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shannon Hills's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shannon Hills
Each reading below is measured for Shannon Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShannon Hills runs about 269 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredShannon Hills 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 Shannon Hills is in
Shannon Hills sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shannon Hills's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Saline County is mostly Ouachita Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Shannon Hills
Every plant below cleared Shannon Hills's own zone 8a and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shannon Hills?
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 Feb 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Shannon Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shannon Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ESQUIRE MARBLE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SHANNON HILLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SHANNON HILLS, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 01S13W22BAA1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- SHANNON HILLS FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BIG RED #131Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HORTON & HORTON PRINTING COMPAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- JAMES A ROGERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- FEDEX GROUND- LITTLE ROCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- EAC QUICK STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PHILLIPS 66 #667Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZLROBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shannon Hills'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 Shannon Hills.
Total Sites
835
within ~10 miles of Shannon Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shannon Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shannon Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shannon Hills, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 553 sites within ~10 miles of Shannon Hills. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Shannon Hills
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 Shannon Hills average
Your land is one point inside Shannon Hills
Everything above resolves to Shannon Hills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Shannon Hills Average
Shannon Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Shannon Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Shannon Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Shannon Hills's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shannon Hills's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shannon Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shannon Hills, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shannon Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shannon Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shannon Hills average
How we know this about Shannon Hills
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 Shannon Hills’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 Shannon Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Shannon Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shannon Hills typically lands around Mar 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Shannon Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shannon Hills typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shannon Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shannon Hills sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 12, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shannon Hills?
The federal record around Shannon Hills is a meaningful one — 835 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (553), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Shannon Hills?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shannon Hills's scale — its 8a band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shannon Hills'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 Shannon Hills’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Shannon Hills's own scale — its own ~269-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,689 acres it covers and 835 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shannon Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shannon Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 2 and Nov 26 and the ~269-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 835 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shannon Hills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shannon Hills's boundary and the 1,689 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Shannon Hills 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 Shannon Hills's 1,689 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saline 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 Saline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shannon Hills's 1,689 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shannon Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,689 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 Shannon Hills-wide figureread your own land →
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