Sharp County, in Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
Sharp 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
Sharp County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Sharp 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 Sharp County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sharp County — the short answer
Sharp County, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 387K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 387K 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 7b is Sharp County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sharp County's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Sharp County
Across a year, Sharp County accumulates about 4,299 growing degree days above 50°F, about 507 fewer than the middle Arkansas county — ahead of 12 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 2,131 hours below 45°F, 351 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 Sharp County
Across Sharp County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Gepp, Boden, and Doniphan are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very gravelly silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.8, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
5%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Sharp County
The USDA soil survey maps 94% of Sharp County as well drained — but another 7% drains differently: 2% moderately well drained, 2% somewhat excessively drained.
Gepp is the most extensive named soil at 38% of mapped acres, then Boden (22%) and Doniphan (8%).
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 Sharp County
Each reading below is measured for Sharp 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 Sharp County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Sharp County runs about pH 5.0–5.8, 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
MeasuredSharp County runs about 237 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
MeasuredSharp County 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 Sharp County is in
Sharp County sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Sharp County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Sharp County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 237-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 Sharp County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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.
Documented around Sharp County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Sharp County
USGS estimates 25,384 lb of Triclopyr on Sharp County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (16,237 lb) and Glyphosate (617 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 Sharp County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Sharp County — 98 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 15 mining sites. Historic and active mines that may leach heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
There's a meaningful federal record across Sharp County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Sharp County
Closest first, across Sharp County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SNEEDS GROCERY AND STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Gibson-FinchMining · 4.5 mi
- Mccaa ProspectsMining · 5.1 mi
- POUGHKEEPSIE MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- SMITH'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- HIGHLAND OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- RED MULE FOOD MARTBrownfields · 7.0 mi
- KERR-MCGEE SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- HIGHLAND BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- RichardsonMining · 7.1 mi
- MURPHY OIL BULK PLANT(HIGHLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- AHTD-HIGHLAND AREA HEADQUARTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sharp 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 Sharp County.
Sources Checked
across Sharp County
Severity Distribution
across Sharp County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sharp County, two things run higher than the national average across Sharp County — Mining (15 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (61 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sharp 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 Sharp County average
Your land is one point inside Sharp County
Everything above resolves to Sharp County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 387K 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 Sharp County Average
Sharp County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Sharp County
- ●One soil character for all of Sharp County
- ●Frost dates read at Sharp County's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sharp County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Sharp County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sharp County, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sharp County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sharp County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sharp County average
How we know this about Sharp 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 Sharp County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Sharp County
When does frost risk typically end in Sharp County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sharp County typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in Sharp County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sharp County sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 30, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sharp County?
The federal record around Sharp County is a meaningful one — 98 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.8 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Sharp County's scale — its 7b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sharp 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 Sharp County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Sharp County's own scale — its own ~237-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 98 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sharp County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sharp County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Sharp CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 98 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Sharp County's boundary and the 386,967 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sharp County sitting wholly inside the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Sharp County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Sharp 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 Sharp County — the ~237 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 Sharp County's 386,967 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 98 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 Sharp Countyread your own land →