Sugden, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sugden, 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 Sugden 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 Sugden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sugden — the short answer
Sugden, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 148 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 148 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 8a is Sugden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sugden's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sugden
Each reading below is measured for Sugden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSugden runs about 248 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
MeasuredSugden 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 Sugden is in
Sugden sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sugden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Sugden
Every plant below cleared Sugden'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 Sugden?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Sugden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sugden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Moore's A To Z (100755)Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Ryan SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- JEFFERSON CO CONS RWD #1PFAS · 4.3 mi
- Sooner ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Williams GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Sticks Super StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Lewis SinclairUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- JW's Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Jefferson County District 3Underground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Okla Dept Of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- JW's Travel StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- Waurika ApcoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sugden'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 Sugden.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sugden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sugden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sugden, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sugden — Mining (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (29 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sugden
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 Sugden average
Your land is one point inside Sugden
Everything above resolves to Sugden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 148 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 Sugden Average
Sugden Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Sugden
- ●One soil character for all of Sugden
- ●Frost dates read at Sugden's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sugden's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sugden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sugden, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sugden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sugden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sugden average
How we know this about Sugden
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 Sugden’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 Sugden
When does frost risk typically end in Sugden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sugden typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Sugden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sugden typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sugden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sugden sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 4, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sugden?
The federal record around Sugden shows 37 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.3 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 Sugden?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sugden's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sugden'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 Sugden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sugden's own scale — its own ~248-day season between 28°F freezes, the 148 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sugden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sugden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 18 and the ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sugden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sugden's boundary and the 148 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 Sugden's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sugden's 148 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sugden's 148 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sugden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 148 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.3 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 Sugden-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaSugden sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.