Valley Springs, 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 Valley 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 Valley 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 Valley Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Valley Springs — the short answer
Valley Springs, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 329 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 329 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 Valley Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valley Springs's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valley Springs
Each reading below is measured for Valley Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValley Springs runs about 239 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
MeasuredValley 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 Valley Springs is in
Valley Springs sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Valley Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Boone County.
What Grows in Valley Springs
Every plant below cleared Valley Springs's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valley Springs?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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 Valley Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valley Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OMAHA EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- VALLEY SHAMROCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- WALMART #1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 18N19W33BBB1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZHRRBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- BRUNO PYATT SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- AHTD- DISTRICT 9 HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- CR0WN FOOD MART 150Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- WHITE OAK STATION #15Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- JOE LAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- WHITE OAK #6Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- SOUTHSIDE GROCERY AND GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valley 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 Valley Springs.
Total Sites
173
within ~10 miles of Valley Springs
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valley Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valley Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valley Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Valley Springs — Mining (22 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (116 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Valley 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 Valley Springs average
Your land is one point inside Valley Springs
Everything above resolves to Valley Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 329 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 Valley Springs Average
Valley Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Valley Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Valley Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Valley Springs's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valley Springs's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valley Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valley Springs, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valley Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valley Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valley Springs average
How we know this about Valley Springs
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 Valley 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 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 Valley Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Valley Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Springs typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Valley Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Springs typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valley Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valley Springs sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 1, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valley Springs?
The federal record around Valley Springs runs heavier than most — 173 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (116), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Valley Springs?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valley Springs's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valley 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 Valley Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Valley Springs's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 329 acres it covers and 173 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valley Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valley Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 15 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 173 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valley Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valley Springs's boundary and the 329 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valley Springs's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valley Springs's 329 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boone 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 Boone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valley Springs's 329 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valley 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 329 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 Valley Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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