Rudy, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rudy, 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 Rudy 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 Rudy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rudy — the short answer
Rudy, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- 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 Rudy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rudy's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rudy
Each reading below is measured for Rudy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRudy runs about 241 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
MeasuredRudy 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 Rudy is in
Rudy sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rudy's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Crawford County is mostly Boston Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Rudy
Every plant below cleared Rudy's own zone 7b and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rudy?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Rudy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rudy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOVE'S TRAVEL STOP #635Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HILLTOP TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CARL'S 71 QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- RUDY STORE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MORRELL MFG INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- ALMA SHORT STOP 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- 10N30W20CBB1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- ALMA SHORT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- MARTHA'S MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- ALAMO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- ALMA OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- SARGENTS BP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rudy'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 Rudy.
Total Sites
280
within ~10 miles of Rudy
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rudy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rudy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rudy, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rudy — PFAS (6 sites) and Nitrate (74 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rudy
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 Rudy average
Your land is one point inside Rudy
Everything above resolves to Rudy 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 Rudy Average
Rudy Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Rudy
- ●One soil character for all of Rudy
- ●Frost dates read at Rudy's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rudy's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rudy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rudy, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rudy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rudy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rudy average
How we know this about Rudy
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 Rudy’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 Rudy
When does frost risk typically end in Rudy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rudy typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Rudy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rudy typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rudy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rudy sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 31, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rudy?
The federal record around Rudy is a meaningful one — 280 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (141), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Rudy?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rudy's scale — its 7b band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rudy'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 Rudy’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rudy's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,041 acres it covers and 280 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rudy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rudy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 14 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 280 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rudy, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rudy's boundary and the 1,041 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rudy sits in the Arkansas Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rudy's 1,041 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rudy's 1,041 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rudy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,041 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Rudy-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasRudy sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides