Buckhorn, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Buckhorn, 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 Buckhorn 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 Buckhorn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Buckhorn — the short answer
Buckhorn, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 216 acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 216 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 Buckhorn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buckhorn's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buckhorn
Each reading below is measured for Buckhorn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBuckhorn 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
MeasuredBuckhorn 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 Buckhorn is in
Buckhorn sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Buckhorn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Perry County.
What Grows in Buckhorn
Every plant below cleared Buckhorn'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 Buckhorn?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Buckhorn
Survey cells within 31 miles of Buckhorn checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 86 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Buckhorn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buckhorn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Leo Allen Gas StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Buckhorn Elementary & High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Buckhorn Children CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- H26C0006Nitrate · 1700 ft
- Sparks Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Codys CornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- T & T MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BREATHITT CO WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 1.9 mi
- R & M GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Smith GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Buckhorn Lake SRP MaintanenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Buckhorn Lake State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buckhorn'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 Buckhorn.
Total Sites
67
within ~10 miles of Buckhorn
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 nitrate monitoring sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buckhorn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buckhorn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buckhorn, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Buckhorn — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (54 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Buckhorn
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 Buckhorn average
Your land is one point inside Buckhorn
Everything above resolves to Buckhorn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 216 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 Buckhorn Average
Buckhorn Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Buckhorn
- ●One soil character for all of Buckhorn
- ●Frost dates read at Buckhorn's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buckhorn's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buckhorn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buckhorn, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buckhorn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buckhorn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buckhorn average
How we know this about Buckhorn
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 Buckhorn’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 Buckhorn
When does frost risk typically end in Buckhorn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buckhorn 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 Buckhorn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buckhorn 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 Buckhorn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buckhorn 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 Buckhorn?
The federal record around Buckhorn is a meaningful one — 67 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Buckhorn?
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 Buckhorn's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buckhorn'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 Buckhorn’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Buckhorn's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 216 acres it covers and 67 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buckhorn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Buckhorn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 5 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 67 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buckhorn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buckhorn's boundary and the 216 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Buckhorn's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Buckhorn 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 Buckhorn's 216 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perry 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 Perry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buckhorn's 216 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buckhorn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 216 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Buckhorn-wide figureread your own land →
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