Benton, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Benton, 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 Benton 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 Benton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Benton — the short answer
Benton, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Benton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Benton's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Benton
Each reading below is measured for Benton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBenton runs about 243 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
MeasuredBenton 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 Benton is in
Benton sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Benton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marshall County.
What Grows in Benton
Every plant below cleared Benton's own zone 7a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Benton?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Benton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Benton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Benton Electric SystemUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Little General #68Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- J6D0067Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- South Side ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- First Missionary BaptistUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- J6C0153Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Five Star 1124Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Benton PharmacyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Minit Mart #546Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Cheer Food & Fuel #132Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Long & Perry Attorneys At Law PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Minit Mart #21Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Benton'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 Benton.
Total Sites
397
within ~10 miles of Benton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Benton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Benton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Benton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 254 sites within ~10 miles of Benton. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Benton
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 Benton average
Your land is one point inside Benton
Everything above resolves to Benton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Benton Average
Benton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Benton
- ●One soil character for all of Benton
- ●Frost dates read at Benton's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Benton's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Benton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Benton, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Benton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Benton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Benton average
How we know this about Benton
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 Benton’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 Benton
When does frost risk typically end in Benton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Benton typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Benton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Benton typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Benton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Benton sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 1, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Benton?
The federal record around Benton is a meaningful one — 397 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (254), 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 Benton?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Benton's scale — its 7a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Benton'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 Benton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Benton's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,263 acres it covers and 397 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Benton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Benton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 15 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 397 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Benton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Benton's boundary and the 3,263 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Benton'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 Benton's 3,263 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall 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 Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Benton's 3,263 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Benton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,263 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 Benton-wide figureread your own land →