Barlow, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Barlow, 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 Barlow 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 Barlow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Barlow — the short answer
Barlow, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 353 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 353 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 Barlow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barlow's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barlow
Each reading below is measured for Barlow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBarlow runs about 241 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
MeasuredBarlow 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 Barlow is in
Barlow sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Barlow's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ballard County.
What Grows in Barlow
Every plant below cleared Barlow's own zone 7a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barlow?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Barlow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barlow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Veach Oil & GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Mac & Mac Equip CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Bettys Corner CafeUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- I03D0503Nitrate · 900 ft
- John Sullivan PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- J & J Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Allreds Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CutmartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Hagood Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Kentucky Utilities Co StoreroomUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- I03D0906Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- I03D0509Nitrate · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barlow'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 Barlow.
Total Sites
228
within ~10 miles of Barlow
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barlow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barlow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barlow, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Barlow — Nitrate (92 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Barlow
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 Barlow average
Your land is one point inside Barlow
Everything above resolves to Barlow as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 353 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 Barlow Average
Barlow Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Barlow
- ●One soil character for all of Barlow
- ●Frost dates read at Barlow's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barlow's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barlow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barlow, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barlow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barlow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barlow average
How we know this about Barlow
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 Barlow’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 Barlow
When does frost risk typically end in Barlow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barlow typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Barlow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barlow typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barlow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barlow sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 2, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barlow?
The federal record around Barlow is a meaningful one — 228 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (104), 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 Barlow?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barlow's scale — its 7a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barlow'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 Barlow’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Barlow's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 353 acres it covers and 228 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barlow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barlow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 16 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 228 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barlow, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barlow's boundary and the 353 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Barlow's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Barlow's 353 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ballard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ballard 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 Ballard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barlow's 353 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barlow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 353 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 Barlow-wide figureread your own land →