Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Oklahoma City, 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 Oklahoma City 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 Oklahoma City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oklahoma City — the short answer
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 388K acres of city.
- 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 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 388K 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 Oklahoma City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oklahoma City's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oklahoma City
Each reading below is measured for Oklahoma City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOklahoma City runs about 250 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
MeasuredOklahoma City 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 Oklahoma City is in
Oklahoma City sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Oklahoma City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Oklahoma County is mostly Cross Timbers. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Oklahoma City
Every plant below cleared Oklahoma City's own zone 7b and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oklahoma City?
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 19 — 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 Oklahoma City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oklahoma City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Veolia Energy Oklahoma City IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- HEATING AND COOLING PLTToxics Release Inventory · 200 ft
- 12N-03W-33 DAC 1Nitrate · 800 ft
- Cox Convention CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Myriad GardensUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- FARM FRESH DAIRY NOVELTY PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- Sandridge Energy IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TRIANGLE A AND EBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Gte Sprint Oklahoma City TocUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- New Valley CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Oklahoma City National MemorialUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Sandridge EnergyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oklahoma City'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 Oklahoma City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oklahoma City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oklahoma City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oklahoma City, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 2,080 sites within ~10 miles of Oklahoma City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Oklahoma City
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 Oklahoma City average
Your land is one point inside Oklahoma City
Everything above resolves to Oklahoma City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 388K 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 city 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 Oklahoma City Average
Oklahoma City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Oklahoma City
- ●One soil character for all of Oklahoma City
- ●Frost dates read at Oklahoma City's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oklahoma City's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oklahoma City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oklahoma City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oklahoma City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oklahoma City average
How we know this about Oklahoma City
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Oklahoma City’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Oklahoma City
When does frost risk typically end in Oklahoma City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oklahoma City 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 Oklahoma City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oklahoma City typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oklahoma City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oklahoma City sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 5, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oklahoma City?
The federal record around Oklahoma City runs heavier than most — 3,299 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,080), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Oklahoma City?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oklahoma City's scale — its 7b band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oklahoma City'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 Oklahoma City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oklahoma City's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 388,160 acres it covers and 3,299 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oklahoma City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oklahoma City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 19 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,299 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oklahoma City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oklahoma City's boundary and the 388,160 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Oklahoma City sits in the Central Great Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oklahoma City's 388,160 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oklahoma County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oklahoma City's 388,160 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oklahoma City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 388,160 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 Oklahoma City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaOklahoma City sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides