Kemp, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Kemp, 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 Kemp 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 Kemp — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kemp — the short answer
Kemp, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 117 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- Bryan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- Bryan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- Bryan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 117 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Bryan County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Kemp's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kemp's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kemp
Each reading below is measured for Kemp itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKemp runs about 248 days between hard freezes (read from Bryan County, the closest normal to Kemp) — 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
MeasuredKemp sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Kemp is in
Kemp sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kemp's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bryan County.
What Grows in Kemp
Every plant below cleared Kemp's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kemp?
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 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Kemp
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kemp. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Liberty GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BRYAN CO. RW&SD #5PFAS · 2.4 mi
- Achille (Att)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Formerly Achille 66 StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Kwik Chek 12Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Achille GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- SEAWAY CRUDE COLBERT STATIONBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- Standifer FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- T BAR M RANCHCAFO · 6.3 mi
- RIVERLAND DAIRYCAFO · 6.4 mi
- CITY OF DENISONPFAS · 7.7 mi
- GULF SOUTH PIPELINE - SHERMAN STATIONBrownfields · 7.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kemp'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 Kemp.
Total Sites
19
within ~10 miles of Kemp
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kemp
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kemp
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Kemp
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 Kemp average
Your land is one point inside Kemp
Everything above resolves to Kemp as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 117 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bryan County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Kemp Average
Kemp Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Kemp
- ●One soil character for all of Kemp
- ●Frost dates read at Kemp's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kemp's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kemp
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kemp, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kemp averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kemp — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kemp average
How we know this about Kemp
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 Bryan County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Kemp
When does frost risk typically end in Kemp?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kemp 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 Kemp?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kemp typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kemp?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kemp sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 3, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kemp?
The federal record around Kemp shows 19 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 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 Kemp?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kemp's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kemp'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 Kemp’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Kemp's own scale — the 117 acres it covers and 19 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kemp's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 19 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kemp, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kemp's boundary and the 117 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kemp's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kemp has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bryan County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kemp's 117 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bryan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bryan 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 Bryan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kemp's 117 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kemp you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 117 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 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 Kemp-wide figureread your own land →