Temple, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Temple, 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 Temple 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 Temple — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Temple — the short answer
Temple, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 823 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- 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
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 823 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 Temple's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Temple's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Temple
Each reading below is measured for Temple itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTemple runs about 251 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
MeasuredTemple 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 Temple is in
Temple sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Temple's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cotton County.
What Grows in Temple
Every plant below cleared Temple's own zone 8a and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Temple?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (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. 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 Temple
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Temple. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Glennville 66Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Hop & SackUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Temple Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Rylant'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Temple East-1Mining · 2.1 mi
- 7-Up Bottling CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- Masner ProspectMining · 6.2 mi
- Taylor'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- OKTEX 4 LAUNCHERBrownfields · 6.4 mi
- Happy Stop & CafeUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- James Snider Poor Boy ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- Okla Dept Of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Temple'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 Temple.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Temple
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Temple
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Temple, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Temple — Mining (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (27 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Temple
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 Temple average
Your land is one point inside Temple
Everything above resolves to Temple as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 823 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 Temple Average
Temple Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Temple
- ●One soil character for all of Temple
- ●Frost dates read at Temple's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Temple's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Temple
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Temple, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Temple averages can't show:
We read public map data around Temple — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Temple average
How we know this about Temple
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 Temple’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 Temple
When does frost risk typically end in Temple?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Temple typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Temple?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Temple 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 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Temple?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Temple sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 5, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Temple?
The federal record around Temple is light — 43 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Temple?
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 Temple's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Temple'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 Temple’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Temple's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 823 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Temple's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Temple's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 19 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Temple, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Temple's boundary and the 823 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Temple's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Temple's 823 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cotton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cotton 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 Cotton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Temple's 823 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Temple you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 823 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Temple-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaTemple sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.