Bearden, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bearden, 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 Bearden 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 Bearden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bearden — the short answer
Bearden, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Bearden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bearden's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bearden
Each reading below is measured for Bearden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBearden runs about 239 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
MeasuredBearden 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 Bearden is in
Bearden sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bearden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Okfuskee County.
What Grows in Bearden
Every plant below cleared Bearden's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bearden?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Bearden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bearden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bearden Public SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Ayres Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Joe Curry 48 GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Territory TownUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- CARTER OIL COMPANY GASOLINE PLANTSuperfund · 4.0 mi
- CROMWELL OIL REFINERY-SEMINOLE COUNTYSuperfund · 4.1 mi
- Odot Right-Of-WayUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Hester's General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Cromwell Kings Travel PlazaUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Bus BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Cromwell Conoco Travel PlazaUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Cromwell General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bearden'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 Bearden.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Bearden
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bearden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bearden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bearden, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Bearden. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Bearden
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 Bearden average
Your land is one point inside Bearden
Everything above resolves to Bearden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Bearden Average
Bearden Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Bearden
- ●One soil character for all of Bearden
- ●Frost dates read at Bearden's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bearden's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bearden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bearden, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bearden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bearden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bearden average
How we know this about Bearden
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 Bearden’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 Bearden
When does frost risk typically end in Bearden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bearden typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Bearden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bearden typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bearden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bearden sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 29, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bearden?
The federal record around Bearden is a meaningful one — 69 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Bearden?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bearden's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bearden'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 Bearden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bearden's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,829 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bearden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bearden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 12 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bearden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bearden's boundary and the 4,829 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bearden's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bearden's 4,829 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Okfuskee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Okfuskee 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 Okfuskee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bearden's 4,829 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bearden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,829 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Bearden-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaBearden sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.