Betsy Layne, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Betsy Layne, 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 Betsy Layne 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 Betsy Layne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Betsy Layne — the short answer
Betsy Layne, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Betsy Layne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Betsy Layne's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Betsy Layne
Each reading below is measured for Betsy Layne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBetsy Layne runs about 222 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
MeasuredBetsy Layne 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 Betsy Layne is in
Betsy Layne sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Betsy Layne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Floyd County.
What Grows in Betsy Layne
Every plant below cleared Betsy Layne's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Betsy Layne?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Betsy Layne
Survey cells within 31 miles of Betsy Layne checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 71 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Betsy Layne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Betsy Layne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hayes Leasing CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Betsy Layne Car WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Harold Double KwikUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Betsy Layne High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Harold Switching StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- KENTUCKY OIL & REFININGBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Conns BoronUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Ames Department Store 0568Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Johnson Motor SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Frasures BoronUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- T West Trucking CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Cardinal Country Store #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Betsy Layne'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 Betsy Layne.
Total Sites
236
within ~10 miles of Betsy Layne
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Betsy Layne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Betsy Layne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Betsy Layne, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Betsy Layne — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (212 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Betsy Layne
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 Betsy Layne average
Your land is one point inside Betsy Layne
Everything above resolves to Betsy Layne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 town 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 Betsy Layne Average
Betsy Layne Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Betsy Layne
- ●One soil character for all of Betsy Layne
- ●Frost dates read at Betsy Layne's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Betsy Layne's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Betsy Layne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Betsy Layne, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Betsy Layne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Betsy Layne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Betsy Layne average
How we know this about Betsy Layne
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Betsy Layne’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Betsy Layne
When does frost risk typically end in Betsy Layne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Betsy Layne typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Betsy Layne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Betsy Layne typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Betsy Layne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Betsy Layne sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 24, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Betsy Layne?
The federal record around Betsy Layne is a meaningful one — 236 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (212), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Betsy Layne?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Betsy Layne's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Betsy Layne'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 Betsy Layne’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Betsy Layne's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,157 acres it covers and 236 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Betsy Layne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Betsy Layne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 7 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 236 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Betsy Layne, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Betsy Layne's boundary and the 1,157 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Betsy Layne's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Betsy Layne 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 Betsy Layne's 1,157 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 Betsy Layne's 1,157 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Betsy Layne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,157 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Betsy Layne-wide figureread your own land →
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