Buffalo City, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Buffalo City, 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 Buffalo City 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 Buffalo City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Buffalo City — the short answer
Buffalo City, Arkansas: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 94 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- 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
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 94 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 Buffalo City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buffalo City's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buffalo City
Each reading below is measured for Buffalo City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBuffalo City runs about 229 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
MeasuredBuffalo City 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 Buffalo City is in
Buffalo City sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Buffalo City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Baxter County.
What Grows in Buffalo City
Every plant below cleared Buffalo City's own zone 7a and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Buffalo City?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (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. 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 Buffalo City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buffalo City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BAXTER COUNTY REGIONAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Turkey MountainMining · 0.8 mi
- Prince Fred MineMining · 1.5 mi
- UnknownMining · 1.5 mi
- Michigan MineMining · 1.8 mi
- Dry BoneMining · 2.4 mi
- Annie May MineMining · 2.6 mi
- FoxdenMining · 2.7 mi
- Bonanza MineMining · 3.0 mi
- Lion Hill MineMining · 3.0 mi
- Groundhog MineMining · 3.2 mi
- Chickasaw MineMining · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buffalo City'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 Buffalo City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buffalo City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buffalo City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buffalo City, Mining runs higher than the national average — 61 sites within ~10 miles of Buffalo City. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Buffalo City
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 Buffalo City average
Your land is one point inside Buffalo City
Everything above resolves to Buffalo City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 94 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 Buffalo City Average
Buffalo City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Buffalo City
- ●One soil character for all of Buffalo City
- ●Frost dates read at Buffalo City's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buffalo City's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buffalo City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buffalo City, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buffalo City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buffalo City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buffalo City average
How we know this about Buffalo City
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 Buffalo City’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 Buffalo City
When does frost risk typically end in Buffalo City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buffalo City typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Buffalo City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buffalo City 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 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buffalo City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buffalo City sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 25, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buffalo City?
The federal record around Buffalo City runs heavier than most — 94 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Buffalo City?
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 Buffalo City's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buffalo City'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 Buffalo City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Buffalo City's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 94 acres it covers and 94 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buffalo City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Buffalo City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 8 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 94 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buffalo City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buffalo City's boundary and the 94 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Buffalo City's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Buffalo City's 94 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baxter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baxter 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 Baxter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buffalo City's 94 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buffalo City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 94 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Buffalo City-wide figureread your own land →
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