Shirley, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, 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 Shirley, 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 Shirley 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 Shirley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shirley — the short answer
Shirley, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 7b is Shirley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shirley's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shirley
Each reading below is measured for Shirley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShirley runs about 242 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
MeasuredShirley sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Shirley is in
Shirley sits in the Boston Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shirley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Van Buren County.
What Grows in Shirley
Every plant below cleared Shirley's own zone 7b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shirley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Shirley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shirley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FLASH MARKET # 409Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HARPER'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 1.0 mi
- CLINTON WATERWORKSPFAS · 1.0 mi
- SHIRLEY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BLEVINS, L. A. STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- POP 50'S STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- REAVES FOOD STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- BEN HUNTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- GOODWIN & DAUGHTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- MOUNTAIN RANCH PRO SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- RICK & AMY HAMILITONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shirley'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 Shirley.
Total Sites
70
within ~10 miles of Shirley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shirley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shirley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shirley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 53 sites within ~10 miles of Shirley. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Shirley
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 Shirley average
Your land is one point inside Shirley
Everything above resolves to Shirley 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 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 Shirley Average
Shirley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Shirley
- ●One soil character for all of Shirley
- ●Frost dates read at Shirley's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shirley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shirley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shirley, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shirley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shirley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shirley average
How we know this about Shirley
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 Shirley’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 Shirley
When does frost risk typically end in Shirley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shirley typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Shirley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shirley typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shirley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shirley sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 2, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shirley?
The federal record around Shirley is a meaningful one — 70 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Shirley?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shirley's scale — its 7b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shirley'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 Shirley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Shirley's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,540 acres it covers and 70 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shirley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shirley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 16 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 70 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shirley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shirley's boundary and the 1,540 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shirley's own centroid, the Boston MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shirley's 1,540 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Van Buren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Van Buren 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 Van Buren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shirley's 1,540 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shirley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,540 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Shirley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasShirley sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides