Bella Vista, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bella Vista, 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 Bella Vista 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 Bella Vista — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bella Vista — the short answer
Bella Vista, Arkansas: USDA zone 7a, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 29K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 29K 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 7a is Bella Vista's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bella Vista's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bella Vista
Each reading below is measured for Bella Vista itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBella Vista runs about 227 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
MeasuredBella Vista sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Bella Vista is in
Bella Vista sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bella Vista's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benton County.
What Grows in Bella Vista
Every plant below cleared Bella Vista's own zone 7a and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bella Vista?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Bella Vista
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bella Vista. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAINTENANCE & CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FINISH LINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FUELS & SUPPLIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- COOPER BUILDING MATERIALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BELLA VISTA VILLAGE PROPERTY OUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BELA VISTA CO HH211OUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE #2990Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- CITY OF BELLA VISTA STREET DEPT.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- GRAND CENTRAL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- CLARK, BOB TOYOTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORES #3264Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- VILLAGE DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bella Vista'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 Bella Vista.
Total Sites
207
within ~10 miles of Bella Vista
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bella Vista
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bella Vista
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bella Vista, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Bella Vista. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Bella Vista
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 Bella Vista average
Your land is one point inside Bella Vista
Everything above resolves to Bella Vista as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 29K 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 Bella Vista Average
Bella Vista Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Bella Vista
- ●One soil character for all of Bella Vista
- ●Frost dates read at Bella Vista's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bella Vista's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bella Vista
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bella Vista, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bella Vista averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bella Vista — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bella Vista average
How we know this about Bella Vista
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 Bella Vista’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 Bella Vista
When does frost risk typically end in Bella Vista?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bella Vista typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Bella Vista?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bella Vista typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bella Vista?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bella Vista sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 25, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bella Vista?
The federal record around Bella Vista is a meaningful one — 207 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (127), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles 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 Bella Vista?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bella Vista's scale — its 7a band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bella Vista'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 Bella Vista’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bella Vista's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 28,995 acres it covers and 207 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bella Vista's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bella Vista's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 8 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 207 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bella Vista, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bella Vista's boundary and the 28,995 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bella Vista's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bella Vista's 28,995 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 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 Benton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bella Vista's 28,995 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bella Vista you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 28,995 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Bella Vista-wide figureread your own land →
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