Stratford, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Stratford, 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 Stratford 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 Stratford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stratford — the short answer
Stratford, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 647 acres of town.
- 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 647 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 Stratford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stratford's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stratford
Each reading below is measured for Stratford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStratford runs about 247 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
MeasuredStratford 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 Stratford is in
Stratford sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Stratford's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Garvin County is mostly Central Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Stratford
Every plant below cleared Stratford's own zone 7b and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stratford?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 16 — 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 Stratford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stratford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITGO PRODUCTS P/L STRATFORDBrownfields · 550 ft
- Eldridge PropaneUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Stratford FinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Sooner's Minit MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Stratford SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Master GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- E-Z Mart #4254Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Peach Tree JunctionUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Hardin's One Stop 100226Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Bull Dog CornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Country CafeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Wood's Tire ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stratford'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 Stratford.
Total Sites
36
within ~10 miles of Stratford
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stratford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stratford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stratford, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 27 sites within ~10 miles of Stratford. 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 Stratford
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 Stratford average
Your land is one point inside Stratford
Everything above resolves to Stratford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 647 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 Stratford Average
Stratford Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Stratford
- ●One soil character for all of Stratford
- ●Frost dates read at Stratford's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stratford's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stratford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stratford, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stratford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stratford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stratford average
How we know this about Stratford
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 Stratford’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 Stratford
When does frost risk typically end in Stratford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stratford 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 Stratford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stratford typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stratford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stratford sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 2, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stratford?
The federal record around Stratford is a meaningful one — 36 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Stratford?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stratford's scale — its 7b band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stratford'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 Stratford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Stratford's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 647 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stratford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stratford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 16 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stratford, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stratford's boundary and the 647 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Stratford sits in the Cross Timbers — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stratford's 647 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Garvin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Garvin 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 Garvin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stratford's 647 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stratford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 647 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Stratford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaStratford sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.