Willisville, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Willisville, 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 Willisville 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 Willisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Willisville — the short answer
Willisville, Arkansas: USDA zone 8b, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- Nevada County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- Nevada County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- Nevada County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Nevada County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Willisville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Willisville's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Willisville
Each reading below is measured for Willisville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWillisville runs about 260 days between hard freezes (read from Nevada County, the closest normal to Willisville) — 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
MeasuredWillisville sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Willisville is in
Willisville sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Willisville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nevada County.
What Grows in Willisville
Every plant below cleared Willisville's own zone 8b and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Willisville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Willisville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Willisville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ODELL & PAULA'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WILLISVILLE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 14S21W18DAC1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- WALDO'S SPORTING GOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- 14S21W11ADB1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- THE ""Y"" COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- NEVADA SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- KOUNTRY KORNER MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- 13S21W21CDA1Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- TJ'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- ROSSTON AUTO SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- OAK GROVE SCHOOL CAMPUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Willisville'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 Willisville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Willisville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Willisville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Willisville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Willisville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Willisville
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 Willisville average
Your land is one point inside Willisville
Everything above resolves to Willisville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Nevada County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Willisville Average
Willisville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Willisville
- ●One soil character for all of Willisville
- ●Frost dates read at Willisville's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Willisville's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Willisville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Willisville, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Willisville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Willisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Willisville average
How we know this about Willisville
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 Nevada County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Willisville
When does frost risk typically end in Willisville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Willisville typically lands around Mar 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Willisville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Willisville typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Willisville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Willisville sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 5, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Willisville?
The federal record around Willisville shows 33 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Willisville?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Willisville's scale — its 8b band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Willisville'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 Willisville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Willisville's own scale — the 1,022 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Willisville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Willisville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Willisville's boundary and the 1,022 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Willisville's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Willisville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Nevada County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Willisville's 1,022 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nevada County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nevada 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 Nevada County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Willisville's 1,022 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Willisville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,022 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Willisville-wide figureread your own land →