Durham, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Durham, 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 Durham 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 Durham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Durham — the short answer
Durham, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 146 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 146 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 Durham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Durham's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Durham
Each reading below is measured for Durham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDurham runs about 219 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
MeasuredDurham 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 Durham is in
Durham sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Durham's own centroid rather than borrowed from Roger Mills County.
What Grows in Durham
Every plant below cleared Durham's own zone 7a and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Durham?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Durham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Durham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- The Hitchin PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 15N-26W-11 CCC 1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- HAWKINS EQUITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- 15N-25W-17 BDA 1Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- 17N-26W-24 A 1Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- 17N-25W-23 BAC 1Nitrate · 7.3 mi
- 17N-25W-18 BBD 1Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- Merrick Ranch, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- unknown COS-1194Nitrate · 8.2 mi
- 14N-25W-06 CCA 1Nitrate · 8.8 mi
- 16N-24W-28 ACC 1Nitrate · 9.7 mi
Measured from Durham'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 Durham.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Durham
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Durham
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 Durham average
Your land is one point inside Durham
Everything above resolves to Durham as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 146 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 Durham Average
Durham Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Durham
- ●One soil character for all of Durham
- ●Frost dates read at Durham's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Durham's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Durham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Durham, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Durham averages can't show:
We read public map data around Durham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Durham average
How we know this about Durham
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 Durham’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 Durham
When does frost risk typically end in Durham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Durham typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Durham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Durham typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Durham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Durham sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 21, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Durham?
The federal record around Durham is light — 19 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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 Durham?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Durham's scale — its 7a band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Durham'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 Durham’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Durham's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 146 acres it covers and 19 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Durham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Durham's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 4 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 19 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Durham, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Durham's boundary and the 146 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Durham's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Durham's 146 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Roger Mills County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Roger Mills 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 Roger Mills County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Durham's 146 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Durham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 146 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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 Durham-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaDurham sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides