Cookson, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cookson, 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 Cookson 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 Cookson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cookson — the short answer
Cookson, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- 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
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Cookson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cookson's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cookson
Each reading below is measured for Cookson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCookson runs about 232 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
MeasuredCookson 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 Cookson is in
Cookson sits in the Boston Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cookson's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cherokee County is mostly Ozark Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cookson
Every plant below cleared Cookson's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cookson?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Cookson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cookson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cookson Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Blue Top GrocUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Cookson Village Properties LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Flintridge GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Pettit Bay MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Oklahoma Station - Tandi RobertsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Cherokee Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Greenleaf Nursery Company Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Well Owner Name: KenNitrate · 3.3 mi
- Barnacle Bills MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Caney Ridge Best StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Chicken Creek Store & LodgingUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cookson'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 Cookson.
Total Sites
33
within ~10 miles of Cookson
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cookson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cookson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cookson, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Cookson. 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.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cookson
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 Cookson average
Your land is one point inside Cookson
Everything above resolves to Cookson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Cookson Average
Cookson Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Cookson
- ●One soil character for all of Cookson
- ●Frost dates read at Cookson's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cookson's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cookson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cookson, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cookson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cookson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cookson average
How we know this about Cookson
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 Cookson’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 Cookson
When does frost risk typically end in Cookson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cookson typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Cookson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cookson 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 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cookson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cookson sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 27, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cookson?
The federal record around Cookson is light — 33 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cookson?
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 Cookson's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cookson'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 Cookson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cookson's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,238 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cookson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cookson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 10 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cookson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cookson's boundary and the 8,238 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cookson sits in the Boston Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cookson's 8,238 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cherokee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cherokee 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 Cherokee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cookson's 8,238 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cookson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,238 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Cookson-wide figureread your own land →
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