Elkins, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elkins, 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 Elkins 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 Elkins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elkins — the short answer
Elkins, Arkansas: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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
- 2K 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 Elkins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elkins's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elkins
Each reading below is measured for Elkins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElkins 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
MeasuredElkins 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 Elkins is in
Elkins sits in the Boston Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elkins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Elkins
Every plant below cleared Elkins'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 Elkins?
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 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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Elkins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elkins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARP'S #115Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ELKINS SHELL #109Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE #3093Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FLASH MARKET #377Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WALKER GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BOSTON MOUNTAIN SWD @ ELKINS COMMUNITY CENTERBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- BALDWIN C STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- ON THE WAY # 5Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- ON THE WAY #2Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- DURHAM GROCERY & POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- PASCHAL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- AT&T COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elkins'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 Elkins.
Total Sites
259
within ~10 miles of Elkins
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
21 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elkins
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elkins
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elkins, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elkins — Toxics Release Inventory (21 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (179 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Elkins
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 Elkins average
Your land is one point inside Elkins
Everything above resolves to Elkins as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Elkins Average
Elkins Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Elkins
- ●One soil character for all of Elkins
- ●Frost dates read at Elkins's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elkins's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elkins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elkins, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elkins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elkins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elkins average
How we know this about Elkins
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 Elkins’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 Elkins
When does frost risk typically end in Elkins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elkins 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 Elkins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elkins 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 Elkins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elkins 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 Elkins?
The federal record around Elkins is a meaningful one — 259 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (179), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Elkins?
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 Elkins's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elkins'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 Elkins’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elkins's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,479 acres it covers and 259 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elkins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elkins's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 9 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 259 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elkins, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elkins's boundary and the 2,479 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 Elkins's own centroid, the Boston MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elkins's 2,479 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elkins's 2,479 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elkins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,479 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Elkins-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasElkins sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides