Covington, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Covington, 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 Covington 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 Covington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Covington — the short answer
Covington, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 322 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 322 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 7a is Covington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Covington's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Covington
Each reading below is measured for Covington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCovington runs about 231 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
MeasuredCovington sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Covington is in
Covington sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Covington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Garfield County.
What Grows in Covington
Every plant below cleared Covington's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Covington?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Covington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Covington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Scott Engine & SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- George M. Or Sharoll Kay KeginUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Covington General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Covington Douglas School I-94Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 21N-04W-11 D 1Nitrate · 1700 ft
- Covington Gas PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- 21N-03W-22 C 1Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- Covington WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Land Run Farmrs Cooperative DouglasUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- Garfield County Dist #1Underground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- Garber CoopUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- BRUNKEN AGRI SALESSuperfund · 8.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Covington'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 Covington.
Total Sites
26
within ~10 miles of Covington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Covington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Covington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Covington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Covington — Nitrate (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (17 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Covington
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 Covington average
Your land is one point inside Covington
Everything above resolves to Covington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 322 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 Covington Average
Covington Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Covington
- ●One soil character for all of Covington
- ●Frost dates read at Covington's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Covington's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Covington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Covington, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Covington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Covington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Covington average
How we know this about Covington
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 Covington’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 Covington
When does frost risk typically end in Covington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Covington typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Covington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Covington typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Covington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Covington sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 28, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Covington?
The federal record around Covington is a meaningful one — 26 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (17), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Covington?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Covington's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Covington'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 Covington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Covington's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 322 acres it covers and 26 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Covington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Covington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 11 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 26 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Covington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Covington's boundary and the 322 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Covington's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Covington's 322 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Garfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Garfield 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 Garfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Covington's 322 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Covington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 322 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Covington-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaCovington sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.