Wilson, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Wilson, 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 Wilson 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 Wilson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wilson — the short answer
Wilson, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 670 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 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 670 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 Wilson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilson's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wilson
Each reading below is measured for Wilson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilson runs about 260 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
MeasuredWilson 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 Wilson is in
Wilson sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wilson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mississippi County.
What Grows in Wilson
Every plant below cleared Wilson's own zone 8a and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wilson?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Wilson
Survey cells within 31 miles of Wilson checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 188 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wilson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wilson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- 11N10E20AAA2Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 11N10E20AAA1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- OVERSTREET FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SR - ARKANSASSuperfund · 2300 ft
- SR - ARKANSASToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- WILSON COMPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 11N10E15AAB1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 11N09E26ABA2Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 11N10E11DCA1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- OSCEOLA AREA HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 12N09E36DCD1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilson'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 Wilson.
Total Sites
123
within ~10 miles of Wilson
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wilson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wilson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wilson — Toxics Release Inventory (23 sites) and Nitrate (38 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Wilson
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 Wilson average
Your land is one point inside Wilson
Everything above resolves to Wilson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 670 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 Wilson Average
Wilson Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Wilson
- ●One soil character for all of Wilson
- ●Frost dates read at Wilson's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilson's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wilson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilson, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilson average
How we know this about Wilson
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 Wilson’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 Wilson
When does frost risk typically end in Wilson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilson 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 Wilson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wilson typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wilson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilson sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 9, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilson?
The federal record around Wilson is a meaningful one — 123 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wilson?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wilson's scale — its 8a band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilson'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 Wilson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wilson's own scale — its own ~260-day season between 28°F freezes, the 670 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 23 and the ~260-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wilson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wilson's boundary and the 670 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wilson's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Wilson checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wilson's 670 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mississippi County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mississippi 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 Mississippi County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wilson's 670 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wilson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 670 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wilson-wide figureread your own land →
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