Black Rock, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Black Rock, 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 Black Rock 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 Black Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Black Rock — the short answer
Black Rock, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Black Rock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Black Rock's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Black Rock
Each reading below is measured for Black Rock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlack Rock runs about 251 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
MeasuredBlack Rock 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 Black Rock is in
Black Rock sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Black Rock's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lawrence County is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Black Rock
Every plant below cleared Black Rock's own zone 7b and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Black Rock?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Black Rock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Black Rock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EAGAN MANUFACTURING CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- KUM AND GO STORE # 379Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- THE MARKET #107Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Campbell Zinc Co's Shafts 2 & 3Mining · 1.0 mi
- 17N01W19BBB1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- AHTD RIGHT OF WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- AHTD BRIDGE 2112 PORTIA BAY REMEDIATIONBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- J & P FLASH #378Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- DON'S QUICK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- 17N01W27ADC1Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- ROBERT'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- BOORHEM-FIELDS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Black Rock'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 Black Rock.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Black Rock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Black Rock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Black Rock, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Black Rock — Mining (11 sites) and Nitrate (30 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Black Rock
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 Black Rock average
Your land is one point inside Black Rock
Everything above resolves to Black Rock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Black Rock Average
Black Rock Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Black Rock
- ●One soil character for all of Black Rock
- ●Frost dates read at Black Rock's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Black Rock's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Black Rock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Black Rock, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Black Rock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Black Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Black Rock average
How we know this about Black Rock
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 Black Rock’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 Black Rock
When does frost risk typically end in Black Rock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Black Rock typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Black Rock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Black Rock typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Black Rock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Black Rock sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 6, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Black Rock?
The federal record around Black Rock is a meaningful one — 113 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Black Rock?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Black Rock's scale — its 7b band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Black Rock'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 Black Rock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Black Rock's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,103 acres it covers and 113 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Black Rock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Black Rock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 20 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 113 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Black Rock, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Black Rock's boundary and the 2,103 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Black Rock sits in the Ozark Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Black Rock's 2,103 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Black Rock's 2,103 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Black Rock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,103 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Black Rock-wide figureread your own land →
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