Willow, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Willow, 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 Willow 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 Willow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Willow — the short answer
Willow, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 168 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- 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 7b is Willow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Willow's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Willow
Each reading below is measured for Willow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWillow runs about 233 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
MeasuredWillow 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 Willow is in
Willow sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Willow's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greer County.
What Grows in Willow
Every plant below cleared Willow's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Willow?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Willow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Willow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Annie P Kopicek EstateUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Well Owner Name: A CNitrate · 2.4 mi
- 07N-22W-02 CCC 1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 08N-21W-31 CD 1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 07N-21W-30 CDB 1Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 08N-21W-31 CD 2Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- Scott Ranch-1Mining · 5.9 mi
- Moravia West-1Mining · 6.0 mi
- Oklahoma National Guard ArmoryUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- Well Owner Name: ArchieNitrate · 6.6 mi
- Fowler RanchMining · 6.8 mi
- J B McalexanderUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Willow'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 Willow.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Willow
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
8 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Willow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Willow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Willow, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Willow — Mining (8 sites) and Nitrate (18 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Willow
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 Willow average
Your land is one point inside Willow
Everything above resolves to Willow 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 Willow Average
Willow Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Willow
- ●One soil character for all of Willow
- ●Frost dates read at Willow's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Willow's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Willow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Willow, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Willow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Willow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Willow average
How we know this about Willow
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 Willow’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 Willow
When does frost risk typically end in Willow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Willow typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Willow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Willow typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Willow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Willow sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 28, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Willow?
The federal record around Willow is light — 38 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Willow?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Willow's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Willow'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 Willow’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Willow's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 168 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Willow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Willow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 11 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Willow, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Willow's boundary and the 168 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Willow's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Willow's 168 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greer 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 Greer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Willow's 168 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Willow 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 0.5 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 Willow-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaWillow sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.