Heber Springs, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Heber Springs, 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 Heber Springs 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 Heber Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Heber Springs — the short answer
Heber Springs, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Heber Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Heber Springs's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Heber Springs
Each reading below is measured for Heber Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHeber Springs runs about 247 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
MeasuredHeber Springs 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 Heber Springs is in
Heber Springs sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Heber Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cleburne County.
What Grows in Heber Springs
Every plant below cleared Heber Springs's own zone 7b and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Heber Springs?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Heber Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Heber Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE #3693Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- STAGE PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- F. L. DAVISUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- USDI, FWS GREERS FERRY NFHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- LOBO LANDING RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- BIG G. RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- JOHNSON TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MURPHY USA #6803Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AHTD JOB # 050175Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BROWNS AUTO CLINIC INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- HEBER TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Heber Springs'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 Heber Springs.
Total Sites
116
within ~10 miles of Heber Springs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Heber Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Heber Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Heber Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Heber Springs — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (10 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Heber Springs
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 Heber Springs average
Your land is one point inside Heber Springs
Everything above resolves to Heber Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Heber Springs Average
Heber Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Heber Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Heber Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Heber Springs's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Heber Springs's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Heber Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Heber Springs, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Heber Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Heber Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Heber Springs average
How we know this about Heber Springs
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 Heber Springs’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 Heber Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Heber Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Heber Springs typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Heber Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Heber Springs typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Heber Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Heber Springs sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 5, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Heber Springs?
The federal record around Heber Springs shows 116 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Heber Springs?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Heber Springs's scale — its 7b band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Heber Springs'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 Heber Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Heber Springs's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,820 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Heber Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Heber Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 19 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Heber Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Heber Springs's boundary and the 5,820 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Heber Springs's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Heber Springs's 5,820 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cleburne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cleburne 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 Cleburne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Heber Springs's 5,820 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Heber Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,820 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Heber Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasHeber Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides