Bellemeade, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bellemeade, 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 Bellemeade 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 Bellemeade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bellemeade — the short answer
Bellemeade, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 188 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 188 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 Bellemeade's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bellemeade's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bellemeade
Each reading below is measured for Bellemeade itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBellemeade runs about 232 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
MeasuredBellemeade 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 Bellemeade is in
Bellemeade sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bellemeade's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Bellemeade
Every plant below cleared Bellemeade's own zone 7a and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bellemeade?
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 Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Bellemeade
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bellemeade checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bellemeade
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bellemeade. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hurstbourne Green DevelopmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Oxmoor MazdaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Former Bluegrass CollisionUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Avis Rent A Car System LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- U of L Ctr for Predictive MedicineUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Speedway #9392Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Earl Stich Epp Stich & SonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Lyndon Fire Protection DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- A B Sawyer ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Frazier Rehab CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Cardinal Sanitation IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Oxmoor HyundaiUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bellemeade'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 Bellemeade.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bellemeade
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bellemeade
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bellemeade, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bellemeade — Underground Storage Tanks (1,496 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (127 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Bellemeade
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 Bellemeade average
Your land is one point inside Bellemeade
Everything above resolves to Bellemeade as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 188 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 Bellemeade Average
Bellemeade Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Bellemeade
- ●One soil character for all of Bellemeade
- ●Frost dates read at Bellemeade's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bellemeade's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bellemeade
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bellemeade, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bellemeade averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bellemeade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bellemeade average
How we know this about Bellemeade
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 Bellemeade’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 Bellemeade
When does frost risk typically end in Bellemeade?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bellemeade typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Bellemeade?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bellemeade typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bellemeade?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bellemeade sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 28, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bellemeade?
The federal record around Bellemeade is a meaningful one — 2,017 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,496), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Bellemeade?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bellemeade's scale — its 7a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bellemeade'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 Bellemeade’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bellemeade's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 188 acres it covers and 2,017 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bellemeade's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bellemeade's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 11 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,017 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bellemeade, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bellemeade's boundary and the 188 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bellemeade's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bellemeade 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 Bellemeade's 188 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bellemeade's 188 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bellemeade you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 188 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Bellemeade-wide figureread your own land →
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