Ardmore, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Ardmore, 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 Ardmore 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 Ardmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ardmore — the short answer
Ardmore, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 32K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 32K 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 8a is Ardmore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ardmore's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ardmore
Each reading below is measured for Ardmore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArdmore runs about 265 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredArdmore 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 Ardmore is in
Ardmore sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ardmore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carter County.
What Grows in Ardmore
Every plant below cleared Ardmore's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ardmore?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Ardmore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ardmore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dale OttUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- E-Z Shop #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Arco Oil And Gas CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Kang Group, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Continental Baking Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #129Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- B & R Car Wash, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- G.W. Jackson Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Murphy Express #8716Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Raymond L. HelmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Lucky Travel #14Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Sunmart #001Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ardmore'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 Ardmore.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ardmore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ardmore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ardmore, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 226 sites within ~10 miles of Ardmore. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ardmore
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 Ardmore average
Your land is one point inside Ardmore
Everything above resolves to Ardmore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 32K 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 city 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 Ardmore Average
Ardmore Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ardmore
- ●One soil character for all of Ardmore
- ●Frost dates read at Ardmore's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ardmore's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ardmore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ardmore, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ardmore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ardmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ardmore average
How we know this about Ardmore
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Ardmore’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Ardmore
When does frost risk typically end in Ardmore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ardmore typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Ardmore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ardmore typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ardmore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ardmore sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 9, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ardmore?
The federal record around Ardmore is a meaningful one — 284 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (226), 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 Ardmore?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ardmore's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ardmore'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 Ardmore’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ardmore's own scale — its own ~265-day season between 28°F freezes, the 31,891 acres it covers and 284 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ardmore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ardmore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 3 and Nov 23 and the ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 284 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ardmore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ardmore's boundary and the 31,891 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ardmore's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ardmore's 31,891 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carter 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 Carter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ardmore's 31,891 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ardmore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 31,891 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 Ardmore-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaArdmore sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides