Broken Bow, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Broken Bow, 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 Broken Bow 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 Broken Bow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Broken Bow — the short answer
Broken Bow, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Broken Bow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Broken Bow's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Broken Bow
Each reading below is measured for Broken Bow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBroken Bow 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
MeasuredBroken Bow 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 Broken Bow is in
Broken Bow sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Broken Bow's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: McCurtain County is mostly Ouachita Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Broken Bow
Every plant below cleared Broken Bow'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 Broken Bow?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (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. 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 Broken Bow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Broken Bow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Former Hamill Bait ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- EZ Mart #3Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- E-Z Mart #4455Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- City Of Broken BowUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Lewis TotalUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Texas, Oklahoma And Eastern R.RUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Broken Bow Office & Oper CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Broken Bow Muffler & TireUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Tommy's Four Way ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Binger Oil Co, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Burke's Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Larry's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Broken Bow'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 Broken Bow.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Broken Bow
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Broken Bow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Broken Bow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Broken Bow, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Broken Bow — Underground Storage Tanks (83 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Broken Bow
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 Broken Bow average
Your land is one point inside Broken Bow
Everything above resolves to Broken Bow as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Broken Bow Average
Broken Bow Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Broken Bow
- ●One soil character for all of Broken Bow
- ●Frost dates read at Broken Bow's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Broken Bow's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Broken Bow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Broken Bow, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Broken Bow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Broken Bow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Broken Bow average
How we know this about Broken Bow
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 Broken Bow’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 Broken Bow
When does frost risk typically end in Broken Bow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Broken Bow typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Broken Bow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Broken Bow 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 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Broken Bow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Broken Bow sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 3, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Broken Bow?
The federal record around Broken Bow is a meaningful one — 108 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (83), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Broken Bow?
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 Broken Bow's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Broken Bow'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 Broken Bow’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Broken Bow's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,919 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Broken Bow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Broken Bow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 17 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Broken Bow, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Broken Bow's boundary and the 3,919 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Broken Bow 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 Broken Bow's 3,919 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McCurtain County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McCurtain 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 McCurtain County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Broken Bow's 3,919 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Broken Bow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,919 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Broken Bow-wide figureread your own land →