Wilson, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wilson, 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 Wilson 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 Wilson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wilson — the short answer
Wilson, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Wilson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilson's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wilson
Each reading below is measured for Wilson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilson runs about 245 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
MeasuredWilson 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 Wilson is in
Wilson sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wilson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carter County.
What Grows in Wilson
Every plant below cleared Wilson's own zone 8a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wilson?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 Wilson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wilson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pji'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- C & M Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Woody's Deal or No DealUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Tammy's One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Advanced RadiatorUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Wilson Express C StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Carter County Dist #3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Wilson StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Hefner's Gulf ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- A CLEAN ENVIRONMENTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- A Clean Env / Triad Sales & SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Ambros HarveyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilson'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 Wilson.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Wilson
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wilson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wilson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilson, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of Wilson. 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 Wilson
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 Wilson average
Your land is one point inside Wilson
Everything above resolves to Wilson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 city 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 Wilson Average
Wilson Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Wilson
- ●One soil character for all of Wilson
- ●Frost dates read at Wilson's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilson's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wilson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilson, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilson average
How we know this about Wilson
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Wilson’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Wilson
When does frost risk typically end in Wilson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilson typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Wilson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wilson typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wilson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilson sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 3, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilson?
The federal record around Wilson shows 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Wilson?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wilson's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilson'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 Wilson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wilson's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,612 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 17 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wilson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wilson's boundary and the 3,612 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wilson's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wilson's 3,612 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carter 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 Carter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wilson's 3,612 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wilson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,612 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Wilson-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaWilson sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides