Barbourville, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Barbourville, 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 Barbourville 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 Barbourville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Barbourville — the short answer
Barbourville, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Barbourville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barbourville's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barbourville
Each reading below is measured for Barbourville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBarbourville runs about 213 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
MeasuredBarbourville 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 Barbourville is in
Barbourville sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Barbourville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Knox County.
What Grows in Barbourville
Every plant below cleared Barbourville's own zone 7a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barbourville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Barbourville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Barbourville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 93 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Barbourville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barbourville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Barbourville 76Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Super Stop 2Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Lees Food Mart #23Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Civil War Preservation ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Binghams Gas IslandUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Jacks Stop & ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Buddys Minit MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Sparkman Concrete IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Former Knox Co HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- City Of Barbourville Municipal BUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Family Mart Inc Ctr SuperetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- G & M Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barbourville'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 Barbourville.
Total Sites
147
within ~10 miles of Barbourville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barbourville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barbourville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barbourville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 115 sites within ~10 miles of Barbourville. 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 Barbourville
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 Barbourville average
Your land is one point inside Barbourville
Everything above resolves to Barbourville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Barbourville Average
Barbourville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Barbourville
- ●One soil character for all of Barbourville
- ●Frost dates read at Barbourville's scale: Apr 1 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barbourville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barbourville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barbourville, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barbourville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barbourville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barbourville average
How we know this about Barbourville
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 Barbourville’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 Barbourville
When does frost risk typically end in Barbourville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barbourville typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Barbourville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barbourville typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barbourville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barbourville sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 17, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barbourville?
The federal record around Barbourville is a meaningful one — 147 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (115), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Barbourville?
From about Oct 1 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 Oct 31 (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 Oct 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barbourville's scale — its 7a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barbourville'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 Barbourville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Barbourville's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,699 acres it covers and 147 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barbourville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barbourville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Oct 31 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 147 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barbourville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barbourville's boundary and the 1,699 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Barbourville's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Barbourville 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 Barbourville's 1,699 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barbourville's 1,699 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barbourville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,699 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 Barbourville-wide figureread your own land →
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