Dora, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dora, 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 Dora 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 Dora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dora — the short answer
Dora, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 509 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 509 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 Dora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dora's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dora
Each reading below is measured for Dora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDora runs about 257 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
MeasuredDora 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 Dora is in
Dora sits in the Boston Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dora's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Dora
Every plant below cleared Dora's own zone 7b and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dora?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Dora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARKLAHOMA PIPELINE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- LEE CREEK MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- BEKAERT CORPToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- BEKAERT CORPBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- 09N32W33DAB1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- GERBER PRODUCTS COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- OK FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- NALCO COMPANY @ NESTLE NUTRITIONToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- NEIS STREET STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- GERBER PRODUCTS CO.Brownfields · 3.6 mi
- GERBER PRODUCTS CO.Toxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- VAN BUREN FOOD EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dora'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 Dora.
Total Sites
780
within ~10 miles of Dora
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dora
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dora
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dora, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dora — Toxics Release Inventory (72 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (503 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Dora
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 Dora average
Your land is one point inside Dora
Everything above resolves to Dora as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 509 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 Dora Average
Dora Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Dora
- ●One soil character for all of Dora
- ●Frost dates read at Dora's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dora's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dora, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dora average
How we know this about Dora
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 Dora’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 Dora
When does frost risk typically end in Dora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dora typically lands around Mar 8, 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 Mar 29.
When is the first frost in Dora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dora typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dora sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 6, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dora?
The federal record around Dora is a meaningful one — 780 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (503), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Dora?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dora's scale — its 7b band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dora'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 Dora’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dora's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 509 acres it covers and 780 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 20 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 780 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dora, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dora's boundary and the 509 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dora's own centroid, the Boston MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dora's 509 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dora's 509 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 509 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Dora-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasDora sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides