The Ozarks spans USDA hardiness zones 6a-7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A rugged Interior Highlands of cherty, rocky soils, oak-hickory forest, and clear streams — brambles, peaches, and tough hill gardens. On paper, tomato, okra, sweet potato, and peach all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
The Ozarks spans Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Its footprint follows the EPA Level III ecoregion boundary; the counties linked below are representative of the region, not an exhaustive list.
Your yard isn't all of the Ozarks.
The Ozarks spans USDA zones 6a-7b, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 The Ozarks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Ozarks — the short answer
The Ozarks: USDA zones 6a-7b, 192–249 frost-free days depending where in it you stand, across 3 states.
- USDA zones
- 6a-7b
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Shortest season here
- 192 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020 — Crawford County
- Counties
- 62
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- EPA ecoregion
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. The season figure is this region's own record, measured across its 62 member counties, not a state or national average.
Hardiness Zone Range
The Ozarks is not one growing season
One answer for the Ozarks averages 62 counties whose growing seasons are 57 days apart — from 192 frost-free days in Crawford County to 249 in Independence County. That is the same region, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your land sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 62 counties runs 219–228 days, with a median of 224 days — a 57-day span end to end.
Measured across 62 member counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020. A member with no own record is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the region. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
Where the line runs inside the Ozarks
The middle half of the Ozarks runs 219–228 frost-free days, and 27 of its 62 counties sit outside that — 15 on the short side, 12 on the long. A regional planting date describes the middle well and the ends poorly, which is worth knowing before you follow one.
Under 219 frost-free days
15 counties
- Crawford County · 192 days
- Phelps County · 197 days
- Shannon County · 202 days
3 of 15 shown
The end of the region that sets the planting calendar — start seed indoors here and the season stretches to meet the crop.
219–228 frost-free days
35 counties
0 of 35 shown
The middle half of the region, and the part a single regional season describes well.
Over 228 frost-free days
12 counties
- Independence County · 249 days
- Sharp County · 237 days
- Randolph County · 237 days
3 of 12 shown
Long enough for a second succession of a quick crop after the first comes out.
Each county is placed by its OWN 28°F frost-free normal (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020), the same figure its own guide page publishes. Elevation, slope and cold-air drainage move a site within its county as well — which is the part only your address resolves.
What Grows in the Ozarks
All 3 of the plants below that publish a season requirement clear even Crawford County’s 192 frost-free days — so on season alone, this grid works at both ends of the region. The 57-day spread still decides how far past this list you can push, and how early you can start.
Plants matched to the Ozarks' USDA zones 6a-7b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Ozarks
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in all 3 states this region crosses, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Ozarks’s USDA zones 6a-7b — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Ozarks
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across 62 member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Alfisols, at 47% of mapped acres, followed by Ultisols (39%), Mollisols (10%) and Entisols (2%). Six soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Clarksville, Goss, and Poynor.
44% of those acres are well drained, and another 32% moderately well drained, 17% somewhat excessively drained. Topsoil pH runs 4.4–7.0 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 9% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
4.4–7.0
Hydric soils
2%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Randolph County holds the most wetland ground here, at 14% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Ozarks
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Ozarks. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records44% of the mapped acres across the Ozarks are well drained — ground that drains quickly. That is area-weighted across all 62 of its mapped counties.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the Ozarks runs pH 4.4–7.0 — acidic in 53 of its 62 counties.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Ozarks — and how to grow with it.
Across the Ozarks' 62 counties the federal record holds 16,145 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks (5,737), Mining (4,510) and Nitrate (2,882). The heaviest single county is Jasper County, with 2,541.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Ozarks to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 62 counties in the Ozarks
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Ozarks, two things run higher than the national average across the 62 counties in the Ozarks — Mining (4,510 sites) and CAFO (285 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Ozarks
Everything above resolves to the Ozarks as a whole — a footprint whose own counties record seasons 57 days apart, and hardiness across zones 6a-7b. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Ozarks Average
Ozarks Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a-7b, averaged across Ozarks
- ●One soil character for all of Ozarks
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ozarks' 6a-7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Ozarks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Ozarks — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ozarks averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Ozarks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ozarks average
How we know this about the Ozarks
The boundary: an EPA Level III ecoregion (an area sharing climate, soils, and vegetation). Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Ozarks
What hardiness zone is the Ozarks?
The Ozarks spans USDA hardiness zones 6a-7b, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Ozarks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Ozarks' counties mostly run 219 to 228 frost-free days, median 224 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 62 member counties). That 9-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 62 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Ozarks?
Across the Ozarks, the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Mar 25 and Mar 31 (median Mar 28), and their first fall freeze between Nov 3 and Nov 8. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Apr 18, and elevation decides which end of a 6-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Ozarks?
The Ozarks' conditions suit plants such as Tomato, Okra, Sweet Potato, Peach, Blackberry, Dogwood. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Ozarks defined?
The Ozarks' footprint follows an EPA Level III ecoregion — a boundary drawn where climate, soils, and vegetation actually change rather than where a state line falls. It covers 62 counties, and the counties linked on this page are representative of the region, not an exhaustive list.
Which states does the Ozarks cover?
The Ozarks spans Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
High Plains, Mississippi Delta, West Gulf Coastal Plain (South Arkansas), Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas River Valley, and Crowley's Ridge share at least one state with the Ozarks. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Ozarks’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Ozarks' own scale — the zone 6a-7b band across its footprint, a median 224-day season across its 62 counties and 16,145 documented federal contamination records across its 62 counties, 2,541 of them in Jasper County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 6a-7b aggregated across all 62 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the EPA Level III ecoregion its 62 counties sit inside, drawn where climate and soils changeEPA Level III Ecoregions
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 62 counties run 219 to 228 frost-free days, median 224NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 16,145 documented federal contamination records across its 62 counties, 2,541 of them in Jasper County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 47% Alfisols, topsoil pH 4.4–7.0, area-weighted across its 62 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — all 3 member states' curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 6a-7bfrom Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 9-day range your ground sits at — 219 days at one extreme, 228 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Ozarks
State growing guides
Representative counties
Other growing regions across Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma
A semi-arid shortgrass tableland of deep soils and big sky, where wind, low rainfall, and irrigation shape dryland wheat, sorghum, and resilient gardens.
The flat, deep, dark alluvial bottomland of the lower Mississippi River — extraordinarily fertile cotton, soybean, rice, and sweet-potato ground.
South Arkansas's pine Timberlands are the warmest, longest-season corner of the state — USDA zones 8a-8b with roughly 256-278 frost-free days (per county_data.json) — but the real signature is the ground: sandy, acidic, well-drained Coastal Plain soils under the pine belt, not the heavy dark alluvium of the Delta to the east or the rocky uplands to the north. That pairing — a long southern season on light, low-pH pine-flatwoods beds — pushes the playbook toward acid-tolerant and heat-loving Southern staples, raised quick-draining beds, and liming/organic-matter management that the Delta and mountain pages never need to cover. Around El Dorado, Camden, Magnolia, and Texarkana this is a distinct crop-and-soil story the statewide and tidal gulf-coast pages both miss.
Arkansas's Ouachita Mountains run in long east-west acidic rock ridges and cool hollows — an Interior Highlands division of thin cherty soil and steep slope aspect, unlike any flat ground in the state. The higher western counties hold zone 7b-8a and a shorter frost-free window (Montgomery ~232 days, Polk ~245) than the 8a bottomlands, so hill gardening here is a slope, aspect, and drainage story the state's 8a/254 median can't tell.
The Arkansas River Valley — one of Arkansas's six natural divisions, threading the Arkansas River between the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains — spans USDA zones 7b to 8a across its eight member counties, with frost-free seasons of roughly 243 to 254 days.
A loess ridge rising two hundred feet out of the Delta's flatness — the well-drained upland that carried Arkansas's historic orchards, running 7b-8a from Piggott to Helena through country that is otherwise alluvial bottomland; the differentiator is the ground itself: deep, drained loess where the Delta holds water.