Decatur, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Decatur, 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 Decatur 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 Decatur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Decatur — the short answer
Decatur, Arkansas: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- 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
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Decatur's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Decatur's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Decatur
Each reading below is measured for Decatur itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDecatur runs about 229 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
MeasuredDecatur 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 Decatur is in
Decatur sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Decatur's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benton County.
What Grows in Decatur
Every plant below cleared Decatur's own zone 7a and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Decatur?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 9 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Decatur
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Decatur. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BENTON COUNTYBrownfields · 700 ft
- 19N33W11BAC1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- SIMMONS FOODS/FEED MILLBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- DECATUR AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #7978Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SIMMONS PREPARED FOODS - DECATURToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- SIMMONS FOODS, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- HANDY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SIMMONS ANIMAL NUTRITION, INC.Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- DECATUR DXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DECATUR TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CRYSTAL LAKE AVIATION LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Decatur'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 Decatur.
Total Sites
166
within ~10 miles of Decatur
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Decatur
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Decatur
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Decatur, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Decatur — PFAS (4 sites) and Nitrate (88 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Decatur
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 Decatur average
Your land is one point inside Decatur
Everything above resolves to Decatur as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 city 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 Decatur Average
Decatur Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Decatur
- ●One soil character for all of Decatur
- ●Frost dates read at Decatur's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Decatur's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Decatur
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Decatur, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Decatur averages can't show:
We read public map data around Decatur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Decatur average
How we know this about Decatur
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Decatur’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Decatur
When does frost risk typically end in Decatur?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Decatur 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.
When is the first frost in Decatur?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Decatur 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 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Decatur?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Decatur sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 26, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Decatur?
The federal record around Decatur shows 166 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (88), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Decatur?
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 Decatur's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Decatur'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 Decatur’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Decatur's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,042 acres it covers and 166 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Decatur's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Decatur's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 9 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 166 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Decatur, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Decatur's boundary and the 3,042 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Decatur's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Decatur's 3,042 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 Decatur's 3,042 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Decatur you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,042 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Decatur-wide figureread your own land →
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