Cove, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Cove, 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 Cove 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 Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cove — the short answer
Cove, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Cove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cove's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cove
Each reading below is measured for Cove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCove runs about 234 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
MeasuredCove 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 Cove is in
Cove sits in the Ouachita Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in Cove
Every plant below cleared Cove's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cove?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Cove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEWIS LUMBER & MFGSuperfund · 2200 ft
- LEWIS LBR & MFG CO. INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- VAN-COVE SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LEWIS LUMBER & MANUFACTURING CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- GREG'S AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COVE SUPER STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SCOTTYS DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 04S32W03CBB1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- SAMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- COVE GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- SMEDLEY'S STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- MIDWAY GRO & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cove'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 Cove.
Total Sites
28
within ~10 miles of Cove
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cove — Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (20 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cove
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 Cove average
Your land is one point inside Cove
Everything above resolves to Cove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Cove Average
Cove Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Cove
- ●One soil character for all of Cove
- ●Frost dates read at Cove's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cove's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cove, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cove average
How we know this about Cove
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 Cove’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 Cove
When does frost risk typically end in Cove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cove typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Cove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cove typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cove sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 29, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cove?
The federal record around Cove is a meaningful one — 28 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (20), the nearest Superfund record about 0.4 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cove?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cove's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cove'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 Cove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cove's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,023 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 12 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cove, the closest Superfund record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cove's boundary and the 1,023 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cove's own centroid, the Ouachita MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cove's 1,023 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cove's 1,023 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,023 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.4 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 Cove-wide figureread your own land →
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