Shidler, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Shidler, 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 Shidler 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 Shidler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Shidler — the short answer
Shidler, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 477 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- 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
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 477 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 Shidler's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shidler's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shidler
Each reading below is measured for Shidler itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShidler runs about 226 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
MeasuredShidler 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 Shidler is in
Shidler sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Shidler'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 Shidler
Every plant below cleared Shidler's own zone 7a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shidler?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (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 Shidler
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shidler. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Anderson TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Formby Oil Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Divalls Master StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Wehunt Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CHAPARRAL ENERGY LLC SHIDLER OFFICEBrownfields · 700 ft
- Stoabs OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Shidler Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- H And R StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 27N-06E-34 DBB 1 MW16Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- Osage County District # 3-ShidlerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Phillips 66 Co #000433Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Phillips Petroleum CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shidler'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 Shidler.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shidler
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shidler
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shidler, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Shidler. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Shidler
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 Shidler average
Your land is one point inside Shidler
Everything above resolves to Shidler as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 477 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 Shidler Average
Shidler Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Shidler
- ●One soil character for all of Shidler
- ●Frost dates read at Shidler's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shidler's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shidler
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shidler, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shidler averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shidler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shidler average
How we know this about Shidler
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 Shidler’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 Shidler
When does frost risk typically end in Shidler?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shidler typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Shidler?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shidler 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 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shidler?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shidler sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 25, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shidler?
The federal record around Shidler is light — 26 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Shidler?
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 Shidler's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shidler'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 Shidler’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Shidler's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 477 acres it covers and 26 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shidler's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shidler's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 8 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 26 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shidler, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shidler's boundary and the 477 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Shidler 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 Shidler's 477 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 Shidler's 477 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shidler you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 477 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 Shidler-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaShidler sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.