Center Ridge, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Center Ridge, 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 Center Ridge 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 Center Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Center Ridge — the short answer
Center Ridge, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- 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
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Center Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Center Ridge's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Center Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Center Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCenter Ridge runs about 250 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
MeasuredCenter Ridge 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 Center Ridge is in
Center Ridge sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Center Ridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Conway County.
What Grows in Center Ridge
Every plant below cleared Center Ridge's own zone 7b and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Center Ridge?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (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. 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 Center Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Center Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 09N15W34DDC01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- EDWARDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CENTER RIDGE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NEMO VISTA SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CENTER RIDGE QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 09N15W26DAC01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- JIM'S CASH & CARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- AUSTIN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- 08N15W29DAA01Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 08N15W36BCD01Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- 09N14W11CAB1Nitrate · 7.6 mi
- KATES KORNER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Center Ridge'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 Center Ridge.
Total Sites
35
within ~10 miles of Center Ridge
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
18 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Center Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Center Ridge, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Center Ridge. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Center Ridge
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 Center Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Center Ridge
Everything above resolves to Center Ridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Center Ridge Average
Center Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Center Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Center Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Center Ridge's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Center Ridge's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Center Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Center Ridge, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Center Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Center Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Center Ridge average
How we know this about Center Ridge
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 Center Ridge’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 Center Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Center Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Center Ridge typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Center Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Center Ridge 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 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Center Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Center Ridge sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 6, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Center Ridge?
The federal record around Center Ridge is light — 35 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Center Ridge?
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 Center Ridge's scale — its 7b band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Center Ridge'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 Center Ridge’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Center Ridge's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,061 acres it covers and 35 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Center Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Center Ridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 20 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 35 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Center Ridge, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Center Ridge's boundary and the 6,061 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Center Ridge's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Center Ridge's 6,061 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Conway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Conway 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 Conway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Center Ridge's 6,061 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Center Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,061 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Center Ridge-wide figureread your own land →
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