Achille, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Achille, 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 Achille 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 Achille — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Achille — the short answer
Achille, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 285 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- Bryan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- Bryan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- Bryan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 285 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 Bryan County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Achille's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Achille's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Achille
Each reading below is measured for Achille itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAchille runs about 248 days between hard freezes (read from Bryan County, the closest normal to Achille) — 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
MeasuredAchille sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Achille is in
Achille sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Achille's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bryan County.
What Grows in Achille
Every plant below cleared Achille's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Achille?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Achille
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Achille. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Achille GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Kwik Chek 12Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Formerly Achille 66 StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SEAWAY CRUDE COLBERT STATIONBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Achille (Att)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Standifer FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Spencer RetailUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Bushnell CornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- Peanut ShoppeUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- Luke Fuel LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- Lucky Food KingUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- Colbert Quik MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Achille'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 Achille.
Total Sites
63
within ~10 miles of Achille
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Achille
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Achille
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Achille, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Achille — Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (40 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Achille
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 Achille average
Your land is one point inside Achille
Everything above resolves to Achille as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 285 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bryan County’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 Achille Average
Achille Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Achille
- ●One soil character for all of Achille
- ●Frost dates read at Achille's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Achille's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Achille
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Achille, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Achille averages can't show:
We read public map data around Achille — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Achille average
How we know this about Achille
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 Bryan County’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 Achille
When does frost risk typically end in Achille?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Achille typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Achille?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Achille typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Achille?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Achille sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 3, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Achille?
The federal record around Achille is a meaningful one — 63 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), 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 Achille?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Achille's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Achille'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 Achille’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Achille's own scale — the 285 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Achille's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Achille, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Achille's boundary and the 285 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Achille's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Achille has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bryan County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Achille's 285 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bryan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bryan 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 Bryan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Achille's 285 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Achille you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 285 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 Achille-wide figureread your own land →