Batavia, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Batavia, 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 Batavia 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 Batavia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Batavia — the short answer
Batavia, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 888 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 888 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 7b is Batavia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Batavia's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Batavia
Each reading below is measured for Batavia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBatavia runs about 239 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
MeasuredBatavia sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Batavia is in
Batavia sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Batavia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Boone County.
What Grows in Batavia
Every plant below cleared Batavia's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Batavia?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Batavia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Batavia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 18N21W02ADD1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 19N21W20BDC1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- EASTMAN BOOTH INCBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- BOONE COUNTY VET CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- DUNCAN INDUSTRIESToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- DUNCAN INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- FAST BOYS #4Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- WABASH NATIONAL WOOD PRODUCTSBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- WABASH NATIONAL WOOD PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 3.7 mi
- SULLINS VIDEOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- AR ARMY NATL GUARD-OMS1BBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- WEST ROCK CONVERTING COMPANYBrownfields · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Batavia'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 Batavia.
Total Sites
188
within ~10 miles of Batavia
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Batavia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Batavia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Batavia, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Batavia. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Batavia
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 Batavia average
Your land is one point inside Batavia
Everything above resolves to Batavia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 888 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 Batavia Average
Batavia Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Batavia
- ●One soil character for all of Batavia
- ●Frost dates read at Batavia's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Batavia's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Batavia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Batavia, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Batavia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Batavia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Batavia average
How we know this about Batavia
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 Batavia’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 Batavia
When does frost risk typically end in Batavia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Batavia typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Batavia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Batavia typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Batavia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Batavia sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 1, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Batavia?
The federal record around Batavia shows 188 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (113), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.3 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 Batavia?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Batavia's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Batavia'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 Batavia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Batavia's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 888 acres it covers and 188 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Batavia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Batavia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 15 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 188 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Batavia, the closest Nitrate record about 2.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Batavia's boundary and the 888 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Batavia's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Batavia's 888 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boone 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 Boone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Batavia's 888 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Batavia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 888 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.3 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 Batavia-wide figureread your own land →
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