Calico Rock, 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 Calico 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 Calico 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 Calico Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Calico Rock — the short answer
Calico Rock, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- 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
- City area
- 3K 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 Calico Rock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Calico Rock's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Calico Rock
Each reading below is measured for Calico Rock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCalico Rock 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
MeasuredCalico 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 Calico Rock is in
Calico Rock sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Calico Rock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Izard County.
What Grows in Calico Rock
Every plant below cleared Calico Rock's own zone 7b and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Calico Rock?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 Calico Rock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Calico Rock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CALICO ROCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SMITHSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CALICO ROCK PUBLIC SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SYLAMORE WMAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SENTINEL INDUSTRIES, INC.Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- SENTINEL INDUSTRIES, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- ARKANSAS GAME & FISH-CALICOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- J & P FLASH #376Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SNAPPY MART #22Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WATSON'S GROCERY & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- L & L OIL COMPANY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- AR DEPT OF CORRECTION - NCUUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Calico 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 Calico Rock.
Total Sites
21
within ~10 miles of Calico Rock
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Calico Rock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Calico Rock
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Calico 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 Calico Rock average
Your land is one point inside Calico Rock
Everything above resolves to Calico Rock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Calico Rock Average
Calico Rock Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Calico Rock
- ●One soil character for all of Calico Rock
- ●Frost dates read at Calico Rock's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Calico Rock's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Calico Rock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Calico Rock, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Calico Rock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Calico Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Calico Rock average
How we know this about Calico 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 Calico 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 Calico Rock
When does frost risk typically end in Calico Rock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Calico Rock 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 Calico Rock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Calico Rock 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 Calico Rock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Calico Rock 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 Calico Rock?
The federal record around Calico Rock is light — 21 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Calico Rock?
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 Calico Rock's scale — its 7b band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Calico 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 Calico Rock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Calico Rock's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,044 acres it covers and 21 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Calico Rock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Calico Rock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 8 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 21 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Calico Rock, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Calico Rock's boundary and the 3,044 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Calico Rock's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Calico Rock's 3,044 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Izard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Izard 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 Izard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Calico Rock's 3,044 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Calico 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 3,044 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 Calico Rock-wide figureread your own land →
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