Fairfax, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Fairfax, 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 Fairfax 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 Fairfax — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairfax — the short answer
Fairfax, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 490 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 490 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 Fairfax's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairfax's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairfax
Each reading below is measured for Fairfax itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFairfax runs about 228 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
MeasuredFairfax 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 Fairfax is in
Fairfax sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fairfax's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Osage County is mostly Cross Timbers. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fairfax
Every plant below cleared Fairfax's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairfax?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Fairfax
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairfax. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Red Devil Superette, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- S & K Full ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Sinclair/Bigheart GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Fairfax One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Town Of FairfaxUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Osage County Dist #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Indian Electric CooperativeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- D & P Tank Service, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Bearly ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Halliburton ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- W K Davis GibbleUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Det 1, Co A 1/179 InfUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairfax'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 Fairfax.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairfax
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairfax, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Fairfax. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fairfax
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 Fairfax average
Your land is one point inside Fairfax
Everything above resolves to Fairfax as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 490 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 Fairfax Average
Fairfax Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Fairfax
- ●One soil character for all of Fairfax
- ●Frost dates read at Fairfax's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairfax's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairfax
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairfax, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairfax averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairfax — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairfax average
How we know this about Fairfax
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 Fairfax’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 Fairfax
When does frost risk typically end in Fairfax?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairfax typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Fairfax?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairfax typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairfax?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairfax sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 24, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairfax?
The federal record around Fairfax is light — 43 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (22), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fairfax?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fairfax's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairfax'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 Fairfax’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fairfax's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 490 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairfax's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fairfax's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 7 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairfax, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairfax's boundary and the 490 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fairfax sits in the Flint Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairfax's 490 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Osage County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Osage 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 Osage County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairfax's 490 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairfax you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 490 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fairfax-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaFairfax sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.