Oil City, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Oil City, 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 Oil City 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 Oil City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oil City — the short answer
Oil City, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Caddo Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Caddo Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Caddo Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Caddo Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Oil City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oil City's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oil City
Each reading below is measured for Oil City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOil City runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Caddo Parish, the closest normal to Oil City) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredOil City sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Oil City is in
Oil City sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oil City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Caddo Parish.
What Grows in Oil City
Every plant below cleared Oil City's own zone 8b and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oil City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Oil City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oil City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ross ExplorationUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Jala Pipeline CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- T J LundyUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- C W BrumleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Petrol IndustriesUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- D&G Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Jeems Bayou Production CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- B&C Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- INDUSTRIAL PARK SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Cd-8Nitrate · 1400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL 12209Brownfields · 1400 ft
- R J Express Mart LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oil City'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 Oil City.
Total Sites
234
within ~10 miles of Oil City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oil City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oil City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oil City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 78 sites within ~10 miles of Oil City. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Oil City
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 Oil City average
Your land is one point inside Oil City
Everything above resolves to Oil City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Caddo Parish’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Oil City Average
Oil City Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Oil City
- ●One soil character for all of Oil City
- ●Frost dates read at Oil City's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oil City's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oil City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oil City, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oil City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oil City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oil City average
How we know this about Oil City
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 Caddo Parish’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Oil City
When does frost risk typically end in Oil City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oil City typically lands around Feb 16, 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 Mar 9.
When is the first frost in Oil City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oil City typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oil City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oil City sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 18, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oil City?
The federal record around Oil City is a meaningful one — 234 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (104), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Oil City?
From about Nov 2 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 Dec 2 (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 Dec 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oil City's scale — its 8b band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oil City'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 Oil City’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Oil City's own scale — the 1,204 acres it covers and 234 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oil City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 234 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oil City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oil City's boundary and the 1,204 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oil City's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Oil City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Caddo Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oil City's 1,204 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Caddo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Caddo County
- The growing challenges every Louisiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Louisiana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Caddo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oil City's 1,204 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oil City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,204 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 Oil City-wide figureread your own land →
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