Bentonville, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bentonville, 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 Bentonville 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 Bentonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bentonville — the short answer
Bentonville, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- 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 6b is Bentonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bentonville's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bentonville
Each reading below is measured for Bentonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBentonville runs about 218 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
MeasuredBentonville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Bentonville is in
Bentonville sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bentonville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Bentonville
Every plant below cleared Bentonville's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bentonville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Bentonville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bentonville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 52 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bentonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bentonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HANSON'S COUNTRY STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- D & H FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BENTONVILLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ZANE TRACE MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 1ST STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- BARRY'S CHEVROLETBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- 578 - M. TAYLORUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- ADAMS CNTY ENGINEERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- ADAMS COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- MANCHESTER HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- MANCHESTER HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- WELDED WIRE PRODSToxics Release Inventory · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bentonville'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 Bentonville.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Bentonville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bentonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bentonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bentonville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Bentonville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Bentonville
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 Bentonville average
Your land is one point inside Bentonville
Everything above resolves to Bentonville 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 Bentonville Average
Bentonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bentonville
- ●One soil character for all of Bentonville
- ●Frost dates read at Bentonville's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bentonville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bentonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bentonville, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bentonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bentonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bentonville average
How we know this about Bentonville
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 Bentonville’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 Bentonville
When does frost risk typically end in Bentonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bentonville typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Bentonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bentonville typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bentonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bentonville sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 24, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bentonville?
The federal record around Bentonville is a meaningful one — 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Bentonville?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bentonville's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bentonville'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 Bentonville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bentonville's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,111 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bentonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bentonville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 7 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bentonville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bentonville's boundary and the 1,111 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bentonville's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bentonville 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 Bentonville's 1,111 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams County
- The growing challenges every Ohio grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Ohio
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bentonville's 1,111 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bentonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,111 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Bentonville-wide figureread your own land →
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