Bellefontaine Neighbors, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bellefontaine Neighbors, 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 Bellefontaine Neighbors 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 Bellefontaine Neighbors — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bellefontaine Neighbors — the short answer
Bellefontaine Neighbors, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 7a is Bellefontaine Neighbors's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bellefontaine Neighbors's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bellefontaine Neighbors
Each reading below is measured for Bellefontaine Neighbors itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBellefontaine Neighbors runs about 245 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
MeasuredBellefontaine Neighbors sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Bellefontaine Neighbors is in
Bellefontaine Neighbors sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bellefontaine Neighbors's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Louis County.
What Grows in Bellefontaine Neighbors
Every plant below cleared Bellefontaine Neighbors's own zone 7a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bellefontaine Neighbors?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Bellefontaine Neighbors
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bellefontaine Neighbors checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 234 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bellefontaine Neighbors
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bellefontaine Neighbors. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T46N R07E 04DCD1Nitrate · 350 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 3824Brownfields · 1400 ft
- UNITED MART 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RIVERVIEW GARDENS SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BELLEFONTAINE 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- KMART #4270Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LEWIS & CLARK BP AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CITY OF BELLEFONTAINE NEIGHBORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TEXACO/AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CITY OF MOLINE ACRESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CHAMBERS CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RIVERVIEW FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bellefontaine Neighbors'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 Bellefontaine Neighbors.
Total Sites
3,238
within ~10 miles of Bellefontaine Neighbors
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
50 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bellefontaine Neighbors
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bellefontaine Neighbors
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bellefontaine Neighbors, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bellefontaine Neighbors — Superfund (50 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (241 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Bellefontaine Neighbors
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 Bellefontaine Neighbors average
Your land is one point inside Bellefontaine Neighbors
Everything above resolves to Bellefontaine Neighbors as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Bellefontaine Neighbors Average
Bellefontaine Neighbors Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Bellefontaine Neighbors
- ●One soil character for all of Bellefontaine Neighbors
- ●Frost dates read at Bellefontaine Neighbors's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bellefontaine Neighbors's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bellefontaine Neighbors
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bellefontaine Neighbors, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bellefontaine Neighbors averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bellefontaine Neighbors — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bellefontaine Neighbors average
How we know this about Bellefontaine Neighbors
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 Bellefontaine Neighbors’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 Bellefontaine Neighbors
When does frost risk typically end in Bellefontaine Neighbors?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bellefontaine Neighbors 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 Bellefontaine Neighbors?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bellefontaine Neighbors typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bellefontaine Neighbors?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bellefontaine Neighbors sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 6, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bellefontaine Neighbors?
The federal record around Bellefontaine Neighbors runs heavier than most — 3,238 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,015), the nearest Nitrate 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 Bellefontaine Neighbors?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bellefontaine Neighbors's scale — its 7a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bellefontaine Neighbors'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 Bellefontaine Neighbors’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bellefontaine Neighbors's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,816 acres it covers and 3,238 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bellefontaine Neighbors's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bellefontaine Neighbors's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 20 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,238 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bellefontaine Neighbors, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bellefontaine Neighbors's boundary and the 2,816 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bellefontaine Neighbors's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bellefontaine Neighbors checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bellefontaine Neighbors's 2,816 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Louis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Louis County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom St. Louis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bellefontaine Neighbors's 2,816 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bellefontaine Neighbors you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,816 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Bellefontaine Neighbors-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Growing region
Nearby growing guides