Melbourne, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Melbourne, 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 Melbourne 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 Melbourne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Melbourne — the short answer
Melbourne, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Melbourne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Melbourne's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Melbourne
Each reading below is measured for Melbourne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMelbourne runs about 236 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
MeasuredMelbourne 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 Melbourne is in
Melbourne sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Melbourne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Izard County.
What Grows in Melbourne
Every plant below cleared Melbourne's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Melbourne?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Melbourne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Melbourne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AHTD-MELBOURNE HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JORDAN'S KWIK STOP #38Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- RED MULEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- OZARKA TECHNICAL COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GIEFER'S POSSUM TROT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- JR FOOD MART #179Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- AHTD ABANDONED TANK ON ROWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- COUNCE COLLISION REPAIR INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- REYNOLDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MELBORNE SUPER STOP SERV STATUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- LAWRENCE MILLER CHEV-OLDS INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- MELBOURNE SCHOOL DISTRICT #20Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Melbourne'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 Melbourne.
Total Sites
35
within ~10 miles of Melbourne
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Melbourne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Melbourne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Melbourne, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Melbourne. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Melbourne
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 Melbourne average
Your land is one point inside Melbourne
Everything above resolves to Melbourne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Melbourne Average
Melbourne Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Melbourne
- ●One soil character for all of Melbourne
- ●Frost dates read at Melbourne's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Melbourne's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Melbourne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Melbourne, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Melbourne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Melbourne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Melbourne average
How we know this about Melbourne
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 Melbourne’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 Melbourne
When does frost risk typically end in Melbourne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Melbourne typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Melbourne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Melbourne typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Melbourne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Melbourne sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 30, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Melbourne?
The federal record around Melbourne is light — 35 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Melbourne?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Melbourne's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Melbourne'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 Melbourne’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Melbourne's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,448 acres it covers and 35 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Melbourne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Melbourne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 13 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 35 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Melbourne, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Melbourne's boundary and the 4,448 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Melbourne's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Melbourne's 4,448 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Izard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Izard 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 Izard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Melbourne's 4,448 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Melbourne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,448 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 Melbourne-wide figureread your own land →
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