Brooks, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Brooks, 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 Brooks 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 Brooks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brooks — the short answer
Brooks, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Brooks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brooks's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brooks
Each reading below is measured for Brooks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrooks runs about 239 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
MeasuredBrooks 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 Brooks is in
Brooks sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brooks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bullitt County.
What Grows in Brooks
Every plant below cleared Brooks's own zone 7a and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brooks?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Brooks
Survey cells within 31 miles of Brooks checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 63 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brooks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brooks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Sparks Distributing CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Brooks Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Watkins Food & GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- C&J RECOVERY LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- HERITAGE-CRYSTAL CLEAN, LLC - LOUISVILLEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Fastrip IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- INTEGRATED COMMERCIALIZATION SOLUTIONS, LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE, INC. - KYBRKBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Shalimar Investments GroupUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Pilot Travel Center 356Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ASD SPECIALTY HEALTHCARE, LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Wamz Radio TransmitterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brooks'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 Brooks.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brooks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brooks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brooks, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Brooks — Underground Storage Tanks (919 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (76 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 Brooks
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 Brooks average
Your land is one point inside Brooks
Everything above resolves to Brooks as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Brooks Average
Brooks Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Brooks
- ●One soil character for all of Brooks
- ●Frost dates read at Brooks's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brooks's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brooks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brooks, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brooks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brooks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brooks average
How we know this about Brooks
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 Brooks’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 Brooks
When does frost risk typically end in Brooks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brooks typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Brooks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brooks typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brooks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brooks sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 3, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brooks?
The federal record around Brooks runs heavier than most — 1,219 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (919), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Brooks?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brooks's scale — its 7a band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brooks'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 Brooks’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brooks's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,260 acres it covers and 1,219 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brooks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brooks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 17 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,219 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brooks, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brooks's boundary and the 2,260 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brooks's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Brooks 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 Brooks's 2,260 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bullitt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bullitt 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 Bullitt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brooks's 2,260 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brooks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,260 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 Brooks-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Wider growing context
What grows across KentuckyBrooks sits outside our named growing regions, so Kentucky as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides