New Houlka, Mississippi, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Houlka, 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 New Houlka 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 New Houlka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Houlka — the short answer
New Houlka, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 786 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Chickasaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- Chickasaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- Chickasaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 786 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 Chickasaw County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is New Houlka's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Houlka's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Houlka
Each reading below is measured for New Houlka itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNew Houlka runs about 245 days between hard freezes (read from Chickasaw County, the closest normal to New Houlka) — 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
MeasuredNew Houlka 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 New Houlka is in
New Houlka sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Houlka's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chickasaw County.
What Grows in New Houlka
Every plant below cleared New Houlka's own zone 8a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Houlka?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 New Houlka
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Houlka. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- David's One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 017B0011 CHICKASAWNitrate · 1600 ft
- Houlka Kwik StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Wages GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 017B0024 CHICKASAWNitrate · 2.2 mi
- Old Sonic Drive InnUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- MILLER TIMBERToxics Release Inventory · 4.6 mi
- 017B0001 CHICKASAWNitrate · 4.7 mi
- Bynum'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- INDIAN CREEK OFFICE FURNITUREToxics Release Inventory · 5.5 mi
- 017F0020 CHICKASAWNitrate · 5.9 mi
- Pop's Quick MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Houlka'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 New Houlka.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of New Houlka
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Houlka
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Houlka
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Houlka, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Houlka — Nitrate (28 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in New Houlka
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 New Houlka average
Your land is one point inside New Houlka
Everything above resolves to New Houlka as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 786 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Chickasaw 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 New Houlka Average
New Houlka Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across New Houlka
- ●One soil character for all of New Houlka
- ●Frost dates read at New Houlka's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Houlka's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Houlka
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Houlka, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Houlka averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Houlka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Houlka average
How we know this about New Houlka
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 Chickasaw 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 New Houlka
When does frost risk typically end in New Houlka?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Houlka typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in New Houlka?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Houlka typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Houlka?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Houlka sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Oct 30, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Houlka?
The federal record around New Houlka shows 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), 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 New Houlka?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Houlka's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Houlka'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 New Houlka’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at New Houlka's own scale — the 786 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Houlka's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Houlka, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Houlka's boundary and the 786 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Houlka's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — New Houlka has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Chickasaw County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Houlka's 786 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chickasaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chickasaw 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 Chickasaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Houlka's 786 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Houlka you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 786 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 New Houlka-wide figureread your own land →
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