Bethesda, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, 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 Bethesda, 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 Bethesda 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 Bethesda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bethesda — the short answer
Bethesda, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 934 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 934 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 Bethesda's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bethesda's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bethesda
Each reading below is measured for Bethesda itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBethesda runs about 243 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
MeasuredBethesda 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 Bethesda is in
Bethesda sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bethesda's own centroid rather than borrowed from Independence County.
What Grows in Bethesda
Every plant below cleared Bethesda's own zone 7b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bethesda?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Bethesda
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bethesda. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WHITE RIVER BETHESDA GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- 13N07W08BDA1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- U OF A LIVESTOCK & FORESTRY STUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- ARKANSAS LIME COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- RED'S FILLING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- 13N07W33ADD1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- GRIFFIN EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- LOCUST GROVE STATION & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- NONE LISTEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- 14N08W14BAB1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- 14N07W09CBD1Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- FRANK FOLLUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bethesda'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 Bethesda.
Total Sites
145
within ~10 miles of Bethesda
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bethesda
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bethesda
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bethesda, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bethesda — Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (107 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bethesda
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 Bethesda average
Your land is one point inside Bethesda
Everything above resolves to Bethesda as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 934 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 Bethesda Average
Bethesda Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Bethesda
- ●One soil character for all of Bethesda
- ●Frost dates read at Bethesda's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bethesda's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bethesda
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bethesda, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bethesda averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bethesda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bethesda average
How we know this about Bethesda
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 Bethesda’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 Bethesda
When does frost risk typically end in Bethesda?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bethesda typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Bethesda?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bethesda typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bethesda?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bethesda sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 2, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bethesda?
The federal record around Bethesda shows 145 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (107), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Bethesda?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bethesda's scale — its 7b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bethesda'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 Bethesda’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bethesda's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 934 acres it covers and 145 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bethesda's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bethesda's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 16 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 145 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bethesda, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bethesda's boundary and the 934 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bethesda's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bethesda's 934 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Independence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Independence 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 Independence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bethesda's 934 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bethesda you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 934 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Bethesda-wide figureread your own land →
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