Blue, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Blue, 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 Blue 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 Blue — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Blue — the short answer
Blue, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Blue's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blue's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blue
Each reading below is measured for Blue itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlue runs about 249 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
MeasuredBlue 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 Blue is in
Blue sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blue's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bryan County is mostly East Central Texas Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Blue
Every plant below cleared Blue's own zone 8a and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blue?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Blue
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blue. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mustangs Stable LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Blue School Sd I-6Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Tony's Quick TripUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- E-Z Mart #4261Underground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- A.J. MccannUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- 06S 11EI sec. 22Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- Big A QuickstopUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- Bokchito Public SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- CMC SOUTHERN POST - DURANTToxics Release Inventory · 6.6 mi
- JCP Specialty FoodsUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- Caddo SuperetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- Miller's Short StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blue'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 Blue.
Total Sites
121
within ~10 miles of Blue
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blue
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blue
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blue, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Blue — Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (95 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Blue
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 Blue average
Your land is one point inside Blue
Everything above resolves to Blue as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Blue Average
Blue Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Blue
- ●One soil character for all of Blue
- ●Frost dates read at Blue's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blue's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blue
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blue, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blue averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blue — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blue average
How we know this about Blue
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 Blue’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 Blue
When does frost risk typically end in Blue?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blue typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Blue?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blue typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blue?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blue sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 2, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blue?
The federal record around Blue is a meaningful one — 121 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Blue?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blue's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blue'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 Blue’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Blue's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,610 acres it covers and 121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blue's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blue's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 16 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blue, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blue's boundary and the 1,610 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Blue sits in the South Central Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blue's 1,610 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 Blue's 1,610 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blue you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,610 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Blue-wide figureread your own land →