Pond Creek, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Pond Creek, 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 Pond Creek 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 Pond Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pond Creek — the short answer
Pond Creek, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 543 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 543 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 Pond Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pond Creek's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pond Creek
Each reading below is measured for Pond Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPond Creek runs about 222 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
MeasuredPond Creek 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 Pond Creek is in
Pond Creek sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pond Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Pond Creek
Every plant below cleared Pond Creek's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pond Creek?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Pond Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pond Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 81 BoondocksUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Farmers Grain CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Dean SchultzUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Bob's Easy ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Archie Or Sue Anne YearickUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Grant County Dist #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 25N-06W-01 C 3Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 25N-06W-01 C 1Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 25N-05W-06 CAC 1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 26N-06W-24 CCD 1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 26N-05W-29 DCC 1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 26N-06W-32 ABB 1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pond Creek'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 Pond Creek.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Pond Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pond Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pond Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pond Creek, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Pond Creek. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Pond Creek
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 Pond Creek average
Your land is one point inside Pond Creek
Everything above resolves to Pond Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 543 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 Pond Creek Average
Pond Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pond Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Pond Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Pond Creek's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pond Creek's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pond Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pond Creek, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pond Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pond Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pond Creek average
How we know this about Pond Creek
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 Pond Creek’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 Pond Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Pond Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pond Creek typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Pond Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pond Creek typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pond Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pond Creek sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 25, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pond Creek?
The federal record around Pond Creek is a meaningful one — 53 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pond Creek?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pond Creek's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pond Creek'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 Pond Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pond Creek's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 543 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pond Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pond Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 8 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pond Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pond Creek's boundary and the 543 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pond Creek's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pond Creek's 543 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pond Creek's 543 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pond Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 543 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 Pond Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaPond Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.