Hickory Flat, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — 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 Hickory Flat, 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 Hickory Flat 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 Hickory Flat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hickory Flat — the short answer
Hickory Flat, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 613 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 613 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 Hickory Flat's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hickory Flat's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hickory Flat
Each reading below is measured for Hickory Flat itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHickory Flat runs about 237 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
MeasuredHickory Flat 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 Hickory Flat is in
Hickory Flat sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hickory Flat's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benton County.
What Grows in Hickory Flat
Every plant below cleared Hickory Flat's own zone 8a and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hickory Flat?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Hickory Flat
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hickory Flat. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Reed's StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Hickory Flat Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 009O0041 BENTONNitrate · 1500 ft
- Rowland Heating & A/cUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 009O0009 BENTONNitrate · 1800 ft
- Goode ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- New Mart #7Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Benton County District 5 ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Hickory Flat Radio Relay StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Gadd's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Gadd Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 009N0001 BENTONNitrate · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hickory Flat'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 Hickory Flat.
Total Sites
56
within ~10 miles of Hickory Flat
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
16 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hickory Flat
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hickory Flat, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hickory Flat — Underground Storage Tanks (40 sites) and Nitrate (16 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hickory Flat
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 Hickory Flat average
Your land is one point inside Hickory Flat
Everything above resolves to Hickory Flat as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 613 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 Hickory Flat Average
Hickory Flat Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hickory Flat
- ●One soil character for all of Hickory Flat
- ●Frost dates read at Hickory Flat's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hickory Flat's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hickory Flat
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hickory Flat, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hickory Flat averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hickory Flat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hickory Flat average
How we know this about Hickory Flat
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 Hickory Flat’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 Hickory Flat
When does frost risk typically end in Hickory Flat?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hickory Flat typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Hickory Flat?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hickory Flat typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hickory Flat?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hickory Flat sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 27, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hickory Flat?
The federal record around Hickory Flat shows 56 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hickory Flat?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hickory Flat's scale — its 8a band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hickory Flat'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 Hickory Flat’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hickory Flat's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 613 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hickory Flat's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hickory Flat's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 10 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hickory Flat, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hickory Flat's boundary and the 613 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hickory Flat's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hickory Flat's 613 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Benton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Benton County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Benton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hickory Flat's 613 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hickory Flat you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 613 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hickory Flat-wide figureread your own land →