Bellefonte, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bellefonte, 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 Bellefonte 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 Bellefonte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bellefonte — the short answer
Bellefonte, Arkansas: USDA zone 7a, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 398 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 398 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 Bellefonte's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bellefonte's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bellefonte
Each reading below is measured for Bellefonte itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBellefonte runs about 236 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
MeasuredBellefonte 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 Bellefonte is in
Bellefonte sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bellefonte's own centroid rather than borrowed from Boone County.
What Grows in Bellefonte
Every plant below cleared Bellefonte's own zone 7a and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bellefonte?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (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. 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 Bellefonte
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bellefonte. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RANDOLPH'S GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- 65 FOOD MART #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 18N19W19BCC1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- HARP'S #202Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SUNSHINE FUEL #32Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SOUTHSIDE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SEVEN ELEVEN #822Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- EDWIN McDONALDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TROUTMAN'S STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- JOE LAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SOUTHSIDE GROCERY AND GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- E.A. MARTIN MACHINERY COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bellefonte'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 Bellefonte.
Total Sites
231
within ~10 miles of Bellefonte
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
14 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bellefonte
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bellefonte
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bellefonte, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bellefonte — Mining (26 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (143 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bellefonte
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 Bellefonte average
Your land is one point inside Bellefonte
Everything above resolves to Bellefonte as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 398 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 Bellefonte Average
Bellefonte Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Bellefonte
- ●One soil character for all of Bellefonte
- ●Frost dates read at Bellefonte's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bellefonte's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bellefonte
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bellefonte, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bellefonte averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bellefonte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bellefonte average
How we know this about Bellefonte
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 Bellefonte’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 Bellefonte
When does frost risk typically end in Bellefonte?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bellefonte typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Bellefonte?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bellefonte 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 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bellefonte?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bellefonte sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 30, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bellefonte?
The federal record around Bellefonte runs heavier than most — 231 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (143), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bellefonte?
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 Bellefonte's scale — its 7a band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bellefonte'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 Bellefonte’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bellefonte's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 398 acres it covers and 231 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bellefonte's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bellefonte's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 13 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 231 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bellefonte, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bellefonte's boundary and the 398 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bellefonte's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bellefonte's 398 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 Bellefonte's 398 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bellefonte you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 398 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bellefonte-wide figureread your own land →
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