Boyd County, in 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.
Boyd County lies within the Ohio River Valley and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Boyd County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Boyd County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Boyd County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Boyd County — the short answer
Boyd County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 102K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 102K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Boyd County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Boyd County's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Boyd County
Across a year, Boyd County accumulates about 3,472 growing degree days above 50°F, about 188 fewer than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 12 of Kentucky’s 120 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Boyd County
Across Boyd County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Latham, Vandalia, and Shelocta are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Boyd County
The USDA soil survey maps 86% of Boyd County as well drained — but another 13% drains differently: 9% moderately well drained, 4% somewhat poorly drained.
Latham is the most extensive named soil at 23% of mapped acres, then Vandalia (17%) and Shelocta (14%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Boyd County
Each reading below is measured for Boyd County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Boyd County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Boyd County runs about pH 5.0–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBoyd County runs about 214 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
MeasuredBoyd County 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 Boyd County is in
Boyd County sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Boyd County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Boyd County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 214-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile.
Is it too late to plant in Boyd County?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Boyd County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Boyd County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 109 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly12 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Boyd County
USGS estimates 702 lb of 2,4-d on Boyd County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (488 lb) and Glyphosate (479 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Boyd County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Boyd County — 292 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Boyd County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Boyd County
Closest first, across Boyd County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Catlettsburg Truck Repair GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Catlettsburg AT&T Radio Relay Station L790050Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HEPACO LLCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Ashland Rte 3 WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Trace Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Clarks Pump N Shop #42Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Leach Bulk Plant 326Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Flying J Travel Plaza #660Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Kentucky Power Co - Ashland DivisionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Racers Food Mart #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Chemical Leaman Tank Lines IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- D29C0007Nitrate · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Boyd County'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 Boyd County.
Total Sites
292
across Boyd County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Boyd County
Severity Distribution
across Boyd County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Boyd County, two things run higher than the national average across Boyd County — Superfund (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (206 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 Boyd County
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 Boyd County average
Your land is one point inside Boyd County
Everything above resolves to Boyd County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 102K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Boyd County Average
Boyd County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Boyd County
- ●One soil character for all of Boyd County
- ●Frost dates read at Boyd County's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Boyd County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Boyd County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Boyd County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Boyd County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Boyd County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Boyd County average
How we know this about Boyd County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Boyd County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Boyd County
When does frost risk typically end in Boyd County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Boyd County typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Boyd County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Boyd County sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 19, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Boyd County?
The federal record around Boyd County is a meaningful one — 292 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (206), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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.
Everything above is measured at Boyd County's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Boyd County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Kentucky's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Boyd County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Boyd County's own scale — its own ~214-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 292 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Boyd County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Boyd County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Boyd CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 292 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Boyd County's boundary and the 102,314 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Boyd County sitting wholly inside the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Boyd County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Boyd County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Kentucky grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kentucky
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Boyd County — the ~214 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Boyd County's 102,314 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 292 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Boyd Countyread your own land →