Swink, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Swink, 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 Swink 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 Swink — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Swink — the short answer
Swink, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 168 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- 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
- ~257
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 168 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 Swink's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Swink's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Swink
Each reading below is measured for Swink itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSwink runs about 257 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
MeasuredSwink 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 Swink is in
Swink sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Swink's own centroid rather than borrowed from Choctaw County.
What Grows in Swink
Every plant below cleared Swink's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Swink?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (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. 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 Swink
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Swink. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Swink Gro & FeedUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Swink SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Choctaw County District #3Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- VacantUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- The Corner StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Fort Towson Public Schools I-2Underground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Weyerhaeuser Paper CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER - VALLIANT MILLToxics Release Inventory · 5.3 mi
- VALLIANT INTERNATIONAL PAPER STATIONBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER - VALLIANT/IP VALLIANT PAPER MILLBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER - VALLIANT/IP VALLIANT PAPER MILLToxics Release Inventory · 5.7 mi
- Formerly Country Girl Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Swink'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 Swink.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Swink
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Swink
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Swink
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Swink, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Swink — Underground Storage Tanks (36 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Swink
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 Swink average
Your land is one point inside Swink
Everything above resolves to Swink as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 168 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 Swink Average
Swink Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Swink
- ●One soil character for all of Swink
- ●Frost dates read at Swink's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Swink's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Swink
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Swink, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Swink averages can't show:
We read public map data around Swink — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Swink average
How we know this about Swink
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 Swink’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 Swink
When does frost risk typically end in Swink?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Swink typically lands around Mar 7, 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 Mar 28.
When is the first frost in Swink?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Swink 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 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Swink?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Swink sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 5, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Swink?
The federal record around Swink is light — 44 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Swink?
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 Swink's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Swink'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 Swink’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Swink's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 168 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Swink's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Swink's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 19 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Swink, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Swink's boundary and the 168 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Swink's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Swink's 168 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Choctaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Choctaw 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 Choctaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Swink's 168 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Swink you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 168 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 Swink-wide figureread your own land →