Cartwright, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cartwright, 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 Cartwright 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 Cartwright — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cartwright — the short answer
Cartwright, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- 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 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- 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 Cartwright's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cartwright's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cartwright
Each reading below is measured for Cartwright itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCartwright runs about 267 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
MeasuredCartwright 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 Cartwright is in
Cartwright sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cartwright's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bryan County.
What Grows in Cartwright
Every plant below cleared Cartwright's own zone 8a and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cartwright?
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 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Cartwright
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cartwright. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lake Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Lucky StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Wood's Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Frank's CornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- J M MANUFACTURINGToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- TEXOMA PROJECT OFFICEBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- Colbert Public SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- TEXOMA TRUCK BODIES/TEXOMA TRUCK BODIESToxics Release Inventory · 3.0 mi
- Colbert Quik MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Lucky Food KingUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Bowles StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- TEXOMA FABRICATION INCBrownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cartwright'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 Cartwright.
Total Sites
193
within ~10 miles of Cartwright
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cartwright
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cartwright
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cartwright, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cartwright — Underground Storage Tanks (153 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites). 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.
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 Cartwright
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 Cartwright average
Your land is one point inside Cartwright
Everything above resolves to Cartwright 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 Cartwright Average
Cartwright Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cartwright
- ●One soil character for all of Cartwright
- ●Frost dates read at Cartwright's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cartwright's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cartwright
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cartwright, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cartwright averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cartwright — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cartwright average
How we know this about Cartwright
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 Cartwright’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 Cartwright
When does frost risk typically end in Cartwright?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cartwright 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 Cartwright?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cartwright typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cartwright?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cartwright sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 11, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cartwright?
The federal record around Cartwright is a meaningful one — 193 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (153), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Cartwright?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cartwright's scale — its 8a band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cartwright'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 Cartwright’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cartwright's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,517 acres it covers and 193 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cartwright's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cartwright's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 3 and Nov 25 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 193 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cartwright, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cartwright's boundary and the 1,517 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cartwright's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cartwright's 1,517 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 Cartwright's 1,517 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cartwright you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,517 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Cartwright-wide figureread your own land →