Big Clifty, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Big Clifty, 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 Big Clifty 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 Big Clifty — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Big Clifty — the short answer
Big Clifty, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 922 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 922 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 Big Clifty's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Clifty's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Clifty
Each reading below is measured for Big Clifty itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBig Clifty runs about 220 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
MeasuredBig Clifty 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 Big Clifty is in
Big Clifty sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Big Clifty's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Grayson County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Big Clifty
Every plant below cleared Big Clifty's own zone 7a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Big Clifty?
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 5 — 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.
Documented around Big Clifty
Survey cells within 31 miles of Big Clifty checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 94 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Big Clifty
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Clifty. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Big Clifty General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- One Stop ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Vanmeters GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Big Clifty Chevron Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Crawfords Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Opas MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- G15C0009Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- Saint Paul Church & SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Tony DarstUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Baillie Lumber Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- G15C0005Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- Tar Hill Quick Sack LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Big Clifty'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 Big Clifty.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Big Clifty
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Clifty
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Big Clifty, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Big Clifty — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (95 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Big Clifty
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 Big Clifty average
Your land is one point inside Big Clifty
Everything above resolves to Big Clifty as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 922 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 Big Clifty Average
Big Clifty Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Big Clifty
- ●One soil character for all of Big Clifty
- ●Frost dates read at Big Clifty's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Clifty's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Clifty
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Clifty, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Clifty averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Clifty — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Clifty average
How we know this about Big Clifty
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 Big Clifty’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 Big Clifty
When does frost risk typically end in Big Clifty?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Big Clifty 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 Big Clifty?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Big Clifty typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Big Clifty?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Big Clifty sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 22, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Clifty?
The federal record around Big Clifty is a meaningful one — 142 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), 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 Big Clifty?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Big Clifty's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Big Clifty'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 Big Clifty’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Big Clifty's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 922 acres it covers and 142 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Clifty's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Big Clifty's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 5 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Clifty, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Clifty's boundary and the 922 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Big Clifty sits in the Interior Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Big Clifty 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 Big Clifty's 922 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grayson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grayson 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 Grayson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Clifty's 922 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Clifty you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 922 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 Big Clifty-wide figureread your own land →