Fayetteville, 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 Fayetteville, 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 Fayetteville 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 Fayetteville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fayetteville — the short answer
Fayetteville, Arkansas: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 35K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 35K 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 Fayetteville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fayetteville's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fayetteville
Each reading below is measured for Fayetteville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFayetteville runs about 231 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
MeasuredFayetteville 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 Fayetteville is in
Fayetteville sits in the Boston Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fayetteville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Fayetteville
Every plant below cleared Fayetteville's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fayetteville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Fayetteville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fayetteville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RAZORBACK UNIFORM & LINEN SERVUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- UNIVERSITY AUTO SERVICE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SHIPLEY THRIFT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DAVE'S K&MUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SHIPLEY BAKING CO OF FAY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NORTH STREET MINI-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TUNE CONCRETE PRODUCTS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- UPTOWN SCHOOL-VACANT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- OZARK STEEL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ROBERTSON, F L TRUSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CAMPBELL SOUP PROCESSING PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- A-1 DETAIL (SERVICE)Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fayetteville'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 Fayetteville.
Total Sites
674
within ~10 miles of Fayetteville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
54 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fayetteville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fayetteville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fayetteville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Fayetteville. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fayetteville
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 Fayetteville average
Your land is one point inside Fayetteville
Everything above resolves to Fayetteville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 35K 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 Fayetteville Average
Fayetteville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Fayetteville
- ●One soil character for all of Fayetteville
- ●Frost dates read at Fayetteville's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fayetteville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fayetteville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fayetteville, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fayetteville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fayetteville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fayetteville average
How we know this about Fayetteville
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 Fayetteville’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 Fayetteville
When does frost risk typically end in Fayetteville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fayetteville typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Fayetteville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fayetteville typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fayetteville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fayetteville sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 27, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fayetteville?
The federal record around Fayetteville is a meaningful one — 674 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (397), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Fayetteville?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fayetteville's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fayetteville'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 Fayetteville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fayetteville's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 35,044 acres it covers and 674 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fayetteville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fayetteville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 10 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 674 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fayetteville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fayetteville's boundary and the 35,044 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fayetteville's own centroid, the Boston MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fayetteville's 35,044 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 Fayetteville's 35,044 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fayetteville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 35,044 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Fayetteville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasFayetteville sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides