Carter, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Carter, 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 Carter 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 Carter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carter — the short answer
Carter, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 340 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 340 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 Carter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carter's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carter
Each reading below is measured for Carter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarter runs about 233 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
MeasuredCarter 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 Carter is in
Carter sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Carter's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beckham County.
What Grows in Carter
Every plant below cleared Carter's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carter?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Carter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- R & R Get It Quick, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- R & R Get It Quick IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Carter Public SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 09N-22W-25 1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 09N-22W-25 DB 1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- Hutchinson PilcoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Jim T Davis TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Ok Dept Of Trans Maint YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Arkla Energy ResourcesUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Van Vacter-2Mining · 3.8 mi
- 09N-22W-30 CBA 1Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 09N-22W-30 BCD 1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carter'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 Carter.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of Carter
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carter
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carter, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Carter. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Carter
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 Carter average
Your land is one point inside Carter
Everything above resolves to Carter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 340 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 Carter Average
Carter Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Carter
- ●One soil character for all of Carter
- ●Frost dates read at Carter's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carter's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carter, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carter averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carter average
How we know this about Carter
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 Carter’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 Carter
When does frost risk typically end in Carter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carter typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Carter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carter typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carter sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 27, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carter?
The federal record around Carter shows 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Carter?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carter's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carter'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 Carter’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carter's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 340 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 10 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carter, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carter's boundary and the 340 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carter's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carter's 340 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beckham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beckham 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 Beckham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carter's 340 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 340 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 Carter-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaCarter sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.