Vilonia, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vilonia, 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 Vilonia 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 Vilonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vilonia — the short answer
Vilonia, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- 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
- ~257
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Vilonia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vilonia's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vilonia
Each reading below is measured for Vilonia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVilonia runs about 257 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
MeasuredVilonia 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 Vilonia is in
Vilonia sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vilonia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Faulkner County.
What Grows in Vilonia
Every plant below cleared Vilonia's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vilonia?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (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 Vilonia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vilonia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARP'S #229Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- KIETH'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- VILONIA MR. K. FOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MIRAJ FLASH MARKET #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BIG RED VALERO #141Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 05N11W08BAC1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- THE EVENT CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- VILONIA SCHOOL BUS YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- VILONIA WATERWORKSPFAS · 1.5 mi
- BEAVERFORK PWAPFAS · 1.5 mi
- Morris FarmMining · 1.8 mi
- BERYL GAS & DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vilonia'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 Vilonia.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vilonia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vilonia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vilonia, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Vilonia. 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 Vilonia
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 Vilonia average
Your land is one point inside Vilonia
Everything above resolves to Vilonia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Vilonia Average
Vilonia Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Vilonia
- ●One soil character for all of Vilonia
- ●Frost dates read at Vilonia's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vilonia's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vilonia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vilonia, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vilonia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vilonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vilonia average
How we know this about Vilonia
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 Vilonia’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 Vilonia
When does frost risk typically end in Vilonia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vilonia typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Vilonia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vilonia 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 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vilonia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vilonia sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 6, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vilonia?
The federal record around Vilonia shows 43 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Vilonia?
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 Vilonia's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vilonia'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 Vilonia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vilonia's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,103 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vilonia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vilonia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 20 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vilonia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vilonia's boundary and the 5,103 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vilonia's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vilonia's 5,103 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Faulkner County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Faulkner 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 Faulkner County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vilonia's 5,103 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vilonia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,103 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 Vilonia-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasVilonia sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides