Oakwood, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oakwood, 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 Oakwood 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 Oakwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oakwood — the short answer
Oakwood, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 724 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- Leon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Leon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- Leon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 724 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Leon County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Oakwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oakwood's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oakwood
Each reading below is measured for Oakwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOakwood runs about 282 days between hard freezes (read from Leon County, the closest normal to Oakwood) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredOakwood sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Oakwood is in
Oakwood sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oakwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Leon County.
What Grows in Oakwood
Every plant below cleared Oakwood's own zone 8b and its 282-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oakwood?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Oakwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oakwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER MIDWAY C STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10800Brownfields · 950 ft
- MIDWAY 20Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ARMADILLO COUNTRY STORE 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ART MESKE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SANDERSON FARMS OAKWOOD FEED MILLToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- OAKWOODToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- OAKWOOD DERAILMENTSuperfund · 4.5 mi
- CROSSROADS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- OWENS CORNING TUCKER PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 7.0 mi
- ENNIS FLINT PALESTINEToxics Release Inventory · 7.2 mi
- TEXAS MISCELLANEOUS IRONToxics Release Inventory · 8.5 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oakwood'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 Oakwood.
Total Sites
19
within ~10 miles of Oakwood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oakwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oakwood
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Oakwood
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 Oakwood average
Your land is one point inside Oakwood
Everything above resolves to Oakwood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 724 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Leon County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Oakwood Average
Oakwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Oakwood
- ●One soil character for all of Oakwood
- ●Frost dates read at Oakwood's scale: Feb 21 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oakwood's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oakwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oakwood, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oakwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oakwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oakwood average
How we know this about Oakwood
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 Leon County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Oakwood
When does frost risk typically end in Oakwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oakwood typically lands around Feb 21, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Oakwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oakwood typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 282 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oakwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oakwood sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 16, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oakwood?
The federal record around Oakwood is a meaningful one — 19 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (6), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Oakwood?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oakwood's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oakwood'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 Oakwood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Oakwood's own scale — the 724 acres it covers and 19 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oakwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 19 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oakwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oakwood's boundary and the 724 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oakwood's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Oakwood has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Leon County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oakwood's 724 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Leon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Leon County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Leon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oakwood's 724 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oakwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 724 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 Oakwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasOakwood sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.