Allen, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Allen, 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 Allen 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 Allen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Allen — the short answer
Allen, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 115 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 115 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 7a is Allen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Allen's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Allen
Each reading below is measured for Allen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAllen runs about 220 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
MeasuredAllen sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Allen is in
Allen sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Allen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Floyd County.
What Grows in Allen
Every plant below cleared Allen's own zone 7a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Allen?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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.
Documented around Allen
Survey cells within 31 miles of Allen checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 76 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Allen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Allen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- May Metal Products IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- P & S WeldingUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Sandy Valley Explosive Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Red Hed No 36Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Herbs Body ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Allen Double KwikUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Ivel Double KwikUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Sandy Valley Monte Bldg StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Kentucky Machinery IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Wickes Lumber Co Inc 361 A DivisUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Dwale PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- D & E Market (Gas & Go Inc)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Allen'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 Allen.
Total Sites
195
within ~10 miles of Allen
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Allen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Allen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Allen, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 176 sites within ~10 miles of Allen. 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 Allen
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 Allen average
Your land is one point inside Allen
Everything above resolves to Allen as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 115 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 Allen Average
Allen Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Allen
- ●One soil character for all of Allen
- ●Frost dates read at Allen's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Allen's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Allen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Allen, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Allen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Allen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Allen average
How we know this about Allen
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 Allen’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 Allen
When does frost risk typically end in Allen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Allen typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 21.
When is the first frost in Allen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Allen typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Allen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Allen sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 23, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Allen?
The federal record around Allen shows 195 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (176), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Allen?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Allen's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Allen'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 Allen’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Allen's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 115 acres it covers and 195 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Allen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Allen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 6 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 195 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Allen, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Allen's boundary and the 115 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Allen's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Allen checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Allen's 115 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Floyd County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Floyd County
- The growing challenges every Kentucky grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kentucky
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Floyd County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Allen's 115 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Allen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 115 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Allen-wide figureread your own land →
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