Amber, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Amber, 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 Amber 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 Amber — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Amber — the short answer
Amber, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Amber's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Amber's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Amber
Each reading below is measured for Amber itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAmber runs about 241 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
MeasuredAmber 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 Amber is in
Amber sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Amber's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grady County.
What Grows in Amber
Every plant below cleared Amber's own zone 7b and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Amber?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Amber
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Amber. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wms Express #2Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Odis Ivie ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Ted's Grocery & DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Amber-Pocasset SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- GARRETT, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- AMBER JUNCTION COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- 08N-07W-23 BBD 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- IRON HORSE PROCESSING PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- Kerr McgeeUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 08N-06W-22 BBD 1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- Robert Norvell Jr.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- 09N-07W-35 BCB 1Nitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Amber'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 Amber.
Total Sites
199
within ~10 miles of Amber
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Amber
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Amber
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Amber, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Amber. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Amber
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 Amber average
Your land is one point inside Amber
Everything above resolves to Amber as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Amber Average
Amber Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Amber
- ●One soil character for all of Amber
- ●Frost dates read at Amber's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Amber's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Amber
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Amber, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Amber averages can't show:
We read public map data around Amber — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Amber average
How we know this about Amber
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 Amber’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 Amber
When does frost risk typically end in Amber?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Amber typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Amber?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Amber typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Amber?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Amber sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Oct 30, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Amber?
The federal record around Amber is a meaningful one — 199 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (122), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Amber?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Amber's scale — its 7b band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Amber'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 Amber’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Amber's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,527 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Amber's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Amber's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 13 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Amber, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Amber's boundary and the 2,527 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Amber's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Amber's 2,527 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grady County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grady 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 Grady County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Amber's 2,527 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Amber you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,527 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Amber-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaAmber sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides