Ravenden, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ravenden, 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 Ravenden 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 Ravenden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ravenden — the short answer
Ravenden, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- 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
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Ravenden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ravenden's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ravenden
Each reading below is measured for Ravenden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRavenden runs about 238 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
MeasuredRavenden 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 Ravenden is in
Ravenden sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ravenden's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lawrence County is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ravenden
Every plant below cleared Ravenden's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ravenden?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (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 Ravenden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ravenden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KWIKSERV #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- NAYLOR'S ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TRADEN-SAM'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- OZARK GIFT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- RAVENDEN JUNCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FLASH MARKET #393Underground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- S & H QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- 18N02W21CCB1Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 18N02W02CAC1Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- JEAN'S 66 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- SPEARS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- 19N02W07AAA1Nitrate · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ravenden'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 Ravenden.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ravenden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ravenden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ravenden, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ravenden — Mining (6 sites) and Nitrate (16 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ravenden
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 Ravenden average
Your land is one point inside Ravenden
Everything above resolves to Ravenden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 town 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 Ravenden Average
Ravenden Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ravenden
- ●One soil character for all of Ravenden
- ●Frost dates read at Ravenden's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ravenden's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ravenden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ravenden, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ravenden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ravenden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ravenden average
How we know this about Ravenden
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Ravenden’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Ravenden
When does frost risk typically end in Ravenden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ravenden typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Ravenden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ravenden 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 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ravenden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ravenden sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 30, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ravenden?
The federal record around Ravenden is a meaningful one — 43 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Ravenden?
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 Ravenden's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ravenden'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 Ravenden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ravenden's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,351 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ravenden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ravenden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 13 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ravenden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ravenden's boundary and the 1,351 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ravenden sits in the Ozark Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ravenden's 1,351 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ravenden's 1,351 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ravenden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,351 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Ravenden-wide figureread your own land →
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