Valley Park, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Valley Park, 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 Valley Park 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 Valley Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Valley Park — the short answer
Valley Park, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Issaquena County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Issaquena County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- Issaquena County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Issaquena County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Valley Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valley Park's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valley Park
Each reading below is measured for Valley Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsValley Park runs about 287 days between hard freezes (read from Issaquena County, the closest normal to Valley Park) — 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
MeasuredValley Park 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 Valley Park is in
Valley Park sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Valley Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Issaquena County.
What Grows in Valley Park
Every plant below cleared Valley Park's own zone 8b and its 287-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valley Park?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Valley Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valley Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 055F0040 ISSAQUENANitrate · 0.9 mi
- 055F0007 ISSAQUENANitrate · 0.9 mi
- Valley Park StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Holcomb Aerial ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- Laymon G SneedUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- 055D0012 ISSAQUENANitrate · 7.5 mi
- 125J0051 SHARKEYNitrate · 7.8 mi
- SOUTHERN NATURAL GAS COMPANY LLC, ONWARD COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 7.8 mi
- Onward StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.3 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER, VICKSBURG MILLBrownfields · 8.3 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER, VICKSBURG MILLToxics Release Inventory · 8.3 mi
- 149B2023 WARREN (Redwood)Nitrate · 8.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valley Park'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 Valley Park.
Total Sites
27
within ~10 miles of Valley Park
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valley Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valley Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valley Park, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Valley Park. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Valley Park
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 Valley Park average
Your land is one point inside Valley Park
Everything above resolves to Valley Park as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Issaquena 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 Valley Park Average
Valley Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Valley Park
- ●One soil character for all of Valley Park
- ●Frost dates read at Valley Park's scale: Feb 16 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valley Park's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valley Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valley Park, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valley Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valley Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valley Park average
How we know this about Valley Park
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 Issaquena 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 Valley Park
When does frost risk typically end in Valley Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Park typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Valley Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Park typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 287 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valley Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valley Park sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 16, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valley Park?
The federal record around Valley Park is light — 27 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Valley Park?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valley Park's scale — its 8b band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valley Park'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 Valley Park’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Valley Park's own scale — the 2,904 acres it covers and 27 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valley Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 27 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valley Park, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valley Park's boundary and the 2,904 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valley Park's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Valley Park has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Issaquena County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valley Park's 2,904 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Issaquena County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Issaquena 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 Issaquena County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valley Park's 2,904 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valley Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,904 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Valley Park-wide figureread your own land →
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