Oakley, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, zucchini, cranberry, cilantro, and okra all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Oakley, 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 Oakley 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 Oakley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oakley — the short answer
Oakley, Wyoming: USDA zone 4b, about 108 days between hard freezes, across 116 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~108
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 116 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 4b is Oakley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oakley's 108-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oakley
Each reading below is measured for Oakley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOakley runs about 108 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredOakley sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Oakley is in
Oakley sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Oakley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in Oakley
Every plant below cleared Oakley's own zone 4b and its 108-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oakley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Oakley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oakley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 21-116-36dcd01Nitrate · 600 ft
- P & F TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- FMC CORP SKULL POINT MINEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- KEMMERER LANDFILLBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- 20-116-10bda01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- KEMMERER-DIAMONDVILLE JPBPFAS · 1.3 mi
- HIGH MEADOW RANCHPFAS · 1.3 mi
- E and L Motors, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- KEMMERER OPERATIONS, LLCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- KEMMERER OPERATIONS, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- ASTARIS LLC KEMMERER PLANTBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- ASTARIS LLC KEMMERER PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oakley'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 Oakley.
Total Sites
82
within ~10 miles of Oakley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oakley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oakley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oakley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Oakley. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Oakley
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 Oakley average
Your land is one point inside Oakley
Everything above resolves to Oakley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 116 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 Oakley Average
Oakley Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Oakley
- ●One soil character for all of Oakley
- ●Frost dates read at Oakley's scale: May 31 to Sep 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oakley's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oakley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oakley, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oakley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oakley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oakley average
How we know this about Oakley
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 Oakley’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 Oakley
When does frost risk typically end in Oakley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oakley typically lands around May 31, 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 Jun 21.
When is the first frost in Oakley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oakley typically arrives around Sep 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 2, so the watching starts about Aug 17 — about 108 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oakley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oakley sees about 108 frost-free days — roughly May 31 through Sep 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 21 to Sep 2, about 73 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oakley?
The federal record around Oakley shows 82 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in Oakley?
With about 108 frost-free days between hard freezes, Oakley rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 136 to 164 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 31 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Oakley's scale — its 4b band and its 108-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oakley'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 Oakley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oakley's own scale — its own ~108-day season between 28°F freezes, the 116 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oakley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oakley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 31 and Sep 16 and the ~108-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oakley, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oakley's boundary and the 116 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~108-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oakley's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oakley's 116 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln County
- The growing challenges every Wyoming grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wyoming
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oakley's 116 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oakley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 116 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Oakley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingOakley sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides