What Grows in Mountain Home, Arkansas

The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Home typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.

The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Home 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 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.

Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mountain Home sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 30, about 204 days.

The federal record around Mountain Home shows 187 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (122), 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.

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.