Wesley, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Wesley, 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 Wesley 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 Wesley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wesley — the short answer
Wesley, Arkansas: USDA zone 7a, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 876 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 876 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 7a is Wesley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wesley's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wesley
Each reading below is measured for Wesley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWesley runs about 230 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
MeasuredWesley sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Wesley is in
Wesley sits in the Boston Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wesley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Wesley
Every plant below cleared Wesley's own zone 7a and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wesley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Wesley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wesley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ON THE WAY #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BOSTON MOUNTAIN SWD @ ELKINS COMMUNITY CENTERBrownfields · 5.3 mi
- WALKER GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- HARP'S #115Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- ELKINS SHELL #109Underground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- ELKINS HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- ALLTEL ARKANSAS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE #3093Underground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- ANDERSON'SUnderground Storage Tanks · Not nearby
- FT 10Underground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- STANS CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- FLASH MARKET #377Underground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wesley'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 Wesley.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wesley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wesley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 23 sites within ~10 miles of Wesley. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Wesley
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 Wesley average
Your land is one point inside Wesley
Everything above resolves to Wesley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 876 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 Wesley Average
Wesley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Wesley
- ●One soil character for all of Wesley
- ●Frost dates read at Wesley's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wesley's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wesley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wesley, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wesley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wesley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wesley average
How we know this about Wesley
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 Wesley’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 Wesley
When does frost risk typically end in Wesley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wesley typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Wesley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wesley typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wesley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wesley sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 26, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wesley?
The federal record around Wesley shows 26 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (23), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Wesley?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wesley's scale — its 7a band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wesley'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 Wesley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wesley's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 876 acres it covers and 26 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wesley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wesley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 9 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 26 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wesley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wesley's boundary and the 876 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wesley's own centroid, the Boston MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wesley's 876 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wesley's 876 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wesley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 876 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Wesley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasWesley sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides