Little Rock, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Little Rock, 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 Little Rock 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 Little Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Little Rock — the short answer
Little Rock, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Little Rock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Little Rock's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Little Rock
Each reading below is measured for Little Rock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLittle Rock runs about 233 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
MeasuredLittle Rock 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 Little Rock is in
Little Rock sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Little Rock's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mayes County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Little Rock
Every plant below cleared Little Rock's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Little Rock?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Little Rock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Little Rock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Woodland Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EXPRESS METAL FABRICATORS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- Rock StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- GRAND RIVER DAM AUTHORITY ROBERT S KERR DAMBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- Rose Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- GRAND RIVER DAM AUTHORITY SALINA PUMPED STORAGE PROJECTBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- Rowland Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- JER-CO INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market #3723Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #6545Brownfields · 3.9 mi
- Pirate's Git N SplitUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- WALMART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET #3723Brownfields · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Little Rock'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 Little Rock.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Little Rock
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Little Rock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Little Rock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Little Rock, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Little Rock — Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (38 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Little Rock
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 Little Rock average
Your land is one point inside Little Rock
Everything above resolves to Little Rock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Little Rock Average
Little Rock Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Little Rock
- ●One soil character for all of Little Rock
- ●Frost dates read at Little Rock's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Little Rock's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Little Rock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Little Rock, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Little Rock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Little Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Little Rock average
How we know this about Little Rock
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 Little Rock’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 Little Rock
When does frost risk typically end in Little Rock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Little Rock typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Little Rock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Little Rock typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Little Rock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Little Rock sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 28, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Little Rock?
The federal record around Little Rock shows 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Little Rock?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Little Rock's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Little Rock'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 Little Rock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Little Rock's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,487 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Little Rock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Little Rock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 11 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Little Rock, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Little Rock's boundary and the 4,487 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Little Rock 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 Little Rock's 4,487 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mayes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mayes County
- The growing challenges every Oklahoma grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oklahoma
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Mayes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Little Rock's 4,487 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Little Rock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,487 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Little Rock-wide figureread your own land →
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