Searcy County, in Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Searcy County lies within the Ozarks — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Searcy County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Searcy County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Searcy County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Searcy County — the short answer
Searcy County, Arkansas: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 426K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 426K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Searcy County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Searcy County's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Searcy County
Across a year, Searcy County accumulates about 4,222 growing degree days above 50°F, about 584 fewer than the middle Arkansas county — ahead of 9 of Arkansas’s 75 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 2,059 hours below 45°F, 279 more than the Arkansas middle of 1,780. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Searcy County
Across Searcy County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Noark, Clarksville, and Nella are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very gravelly silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
7%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Searcy County
The USDA soil survey maps 80% of Searcy County as well drained — but another 20% drains differently: 15% somewhat excessively drained, 2% subaqueous.
Noark is the most extensive named soil at 22% of mapped acres, then Clarksville (14%) and Nella (13%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Searcy County
Each reading below is measured for Searcy County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Searcy County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Searcy County runs about pH 4.6–5.3, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredSearcy County runs about 228 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
MeasuredSearcy County 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 Searcy County is in
Searcy County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Ozark Highlands (52%) and Boston Mountains (48%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Searcy County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Searcy County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 228-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile.
Is it too late to plant in Searcy County?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Searcy County
- monarch butterfly22 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Searcy County
USGS estimates 37,454 lb of Triclopyr on Searcy County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (23,698 lb) and Dicamba (713 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Searcy County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Searcy County — 101 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Searcy County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Searcy County
Closest first, across Searcy County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TREAT WOOD PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PETIT JEAN ELECTRIC COOP. CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MARSHALL STOREROOMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WILLIAMS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SEARCY COUNTY ROAD DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MARSHALL CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- OLIVER GROCERY & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MARSHALL TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- 14N16W08CCB1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- CIRCLE K #37Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- HARP'S FOOD STORE #188Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- BRANSCUM & HARNESS LUMBER CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Searcy County'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 Searcy County.
Total Sites
101
across Searcy County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Searcy County
Severity Distribution
across Searcy County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Searcy County, Mining runs higher than the national average — 21 sites across Searcy County. 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 Searcy County
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 Searcy County average
Your land is one point inside Searcy County
Everything above resolves to Searcy County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 426K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Searcy County Average
Searcy County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Searcy County
- ●One soil character for all of Searcy County
- ●Frost dates read at Searcy County's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Searcy County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Searcy County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Searcy County, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Searcy County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Searcy County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Searcy County average
How we know this about Searcy County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Searcy County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Searcy County
When does frost risk typically end in Searcy County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Searcy County typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
How long is the growing season in Searcy County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Searcy County sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 25, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Searcy County?
The federal record around Searcy County shows 101 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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.
Everything above is measured at Searcy County's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Searcy County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Arkansas's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Searcy County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Searcy County's own scale — its own ~228-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 101 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Searcy County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Searcy County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Searcy CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 101 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Searcy County's boundary and the 426,162 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Searcy County spans, Ozark Highlands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Searcy County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Searcy County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Arkansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arkansas
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Searcy County — the ~228 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Searcy County's 426,162 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 101 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Searcy Countyread your own land →