Cherokee City, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cherokee 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 Cherokee 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 Cherokee City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cherokee City — the short answer
Cherokee City, Arkansas: USDA zone 7a, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 300 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 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 300 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 Cherokee City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cherokee City's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cherokee City
Each reading below is measured for Cherokee City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCherokee City runs about 230 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
MeasuredCherokee 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 Cherokee City is in
Cherokee City sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cherokee City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benton County.
What Grows in Cherokee City
Every plant below cleared Cherokee City's own zone 7a and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cherokee City?
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 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Cherokee City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cherokee City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 18N33W07CAB1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- SOUTHWESTERN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY D/B/A FLINT CREEK POWER PLANTBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- SOUTHWESTERN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY D/B/A FLINT CREEK POWER PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 3.9 mi
- FLINT CREEK POWER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- RILEY'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- EZ MART #4317Underground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- GENTRY PUBLIC SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- EXPRESS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- GENTRY SERVICE (KINGSTIRE)Underground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- 19N33W15CDB1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- MCKEE FOODS CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- MAC HOLDINGS, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cherokee 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 Cherokee City.
Total Sites
194
within ~10 miles of Cherokee City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
20 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cherokee City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cherokee City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cherokee City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cherokee City — Toxics Release Inventory (20 sites) and Nitrate (52 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cherokee 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 Cherokee City average
Your land is one point inside Cherokee City
Everything above resolves to Cherokee City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 300 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 Cherokee City Average
Cherokee City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cherokee City
- ●One soil character for all of Cherokee City
- ●Frost dates read at Cherokee City's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cherokee City's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cherokee City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cherokee City, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cherokee City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cherokee City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cherokee City average
How we know this about Cherokee 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 Cherokee 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 Cherokee City
When does frost risk typically end in Cherokee City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cherokee 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 Cherokee City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cherokee City typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cherokee City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cherokee City sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 26, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cherokee City?
The federal record around Cherokee City shows 194 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.6 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 Cherokee City?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cherokee City's scale — its 7a band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cherokee 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 Cherokee City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cherokee City's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 300 acres it covers and 194 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cherokee City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cherokee City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 9 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 194 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cherokee City, the closest Nitrate record about 3.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cherokee City's boundary and the 300 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cherokee City's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cherokee City's 300 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Benton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Benton 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 Benton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cherokee City's 300 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cherokee 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 300 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.6 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 Cherokee City-wide figureread your own land →
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