Cowlington, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cowlington, 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 Cowlington 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 Cowlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cowlington — the short answer
Cowlington, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 584 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 584 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 Cowlington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cowlington's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cowlington
Each reading below is measured for Cowlington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCowlington runs about 246 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
MeasuredCowlington 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 Cowlington is in
Cowlington sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cowlington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Le Flore County.
What Grows in Cowlington
Every plant below cleared Cowlington's own zone 7b and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cowlington?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Cowlington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cowlington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UnregisteredUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Tobler Auto CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Twilight Grocery & StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Pier 7Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 10N-23E-12 CBB 1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- Unregistered TankUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- 10N-23E-11 DCC 1Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 10N-23E-14 CBB 1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 10N-23E-22 BAA 1Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- Odot Right Of WayUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Uscg Marine TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Pj's General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cowlington'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 Cowlington.
Total Sites
94
within ~10 miles of Cowlington
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cowlington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cowlington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cowlington, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Cowlington. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Cowlington
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 Cowlington average
Your land is one point inside Cowlington
Everything above resolves to Cowlington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 584 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 Cowlington Average
Cowlington Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Cowlington
- ●One soil character for all of Cowlington
- ●Frost dates read at Cowlington's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cowlington's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cowlington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cowlington, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cowlington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cowlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cowlington average
How we know this about Cowlington
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 Cowlington’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 Cowlington
When does frost risk typically end in Cowlington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cowlington typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Cowlington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cowlington typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cowlington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cowlington sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 1, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cowlington?
The federal record around Cowlington shows 94 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Cowlington?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cowlington's scale — its 7b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cowlington'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 Cowlington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cowlington's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 584 acres it covers and 94 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cowlington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cowlington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 15 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 94 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cowlington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cowlington's boundary and the 584 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cowlington's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cowlington's 584 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Le Flore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Le Flore 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 Le Flore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cowlington's 584 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cowlington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 584 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Cowlington-wide figureread your own land →