Bentonville, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bentonville, 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 Bentonville 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 Bentonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bentonville — the short answer
Bentonville, Arkansas: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 23K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 23K 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 Bentonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bentonville's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bentonville
Each reading below is measured for Bentonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBentonville runs about 226 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
MeasuredBentonville 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 Bentonville is in
Bentonville sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bentonville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benton County.
What Grows in Bentonville
Every plant below cleared Bentonville's own zone 7a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bentonville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Bentonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bentonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CRS @ BENTON COUNTY ROAD SHOPBrownfields · 2100 ft
- BENTON COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BENTON COUNTY ROAD DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LITTLEFIELD EXPRESS #1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BENTONVILLE WATER DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE #3022Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BENTON COUNTY AIR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 28TH STREET LLC SUBDIVISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FLASH MARKET #180Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- NUNNALLY CHEVROLET, GEORGEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- WALMART EXPRESS TO GO #7368Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WHITE OAK STATION #20Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bentonville'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 Bentonville.
Total Sites
448
within ~10 miles of Bentonville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bentonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bentonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bentonville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 31 sites within ~10 miles of Bentonville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Bentonville
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 Bentonville average
Your land is one point inside Bentonville
Everything above resolves to Bentonville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 23K 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 Bentonville Average
Bentonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Bentonville
- ●One soil character for all of Bentonville
- ●Frost dates read at Bentonville's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bentonville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bentonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bentonville, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bentonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bentonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bentonville average
How we know this about Bentonville
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 Bentonville’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 Bentonville
When does frost risk typically end in Bentonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bentonville typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Bentonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bentonville typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bentonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bentonville sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 23, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bentonville?
The federal record around Bentonville is a meaningful one — 448 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (246), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Bentonville?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bentonville's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bentonville'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 Bentonville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bentonville's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 22,704 acres it covers and 448 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bentonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bentonville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 6 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 448 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bentonville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bentonville's boundary and the 22,704 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bentonville's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bentonville's 22,704 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 Bentonville's 22,704 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bentonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,704 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Bentonville-wide figureread your own land →
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