Bullitt County, in 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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Bullitt County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Bullitt 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 Bullitt County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bullitt County — the short answer
Bullitt County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 190K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 190K 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 Bullitt County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bullitt County's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Bullitt County
Across a year, Bullitt County accumulates about 4,130 growing degree days above 50°F, about 470 more than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 102 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.
Winter banks about 2,455 hours below 45°F. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Bullitt County
Across Bullitt County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Crider, Caneyville, and Garmon are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.3, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
17%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Bullitt County
The USDA soil survey maps 73% of Bullitt County as well drained — but another 26% drains differently: 14% somewhat poorly drained, 11% moderately well drained.
Crider is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Caneyville (11%) and Garmon (10%).
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 Bullitt County
Each reading below is measured for Bullitt 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 Bullitt County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Bullitt County runs about pH 5.5–6.3, 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
MeasuredBullitt County runs about 235 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
MeasuredBullitt 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 Bullitt County is in
Bullitt County sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Bullitt County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Bullitt County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 235-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 Bullitt County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 13 — 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 Bullitt County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bullitt County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 67 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly13 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Bullitt County
USGS estimates 10,625 lb of Glyphosate on Bullitt County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (5,729 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (2,463 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 Bullitt County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Bullitt County — 170 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Bullitt County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Bullitt County
Closest first, across Bullitt County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Barnyard General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Huron Smith Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- F17A0004Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- Buffalo Run ValeroUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Loves Travel Stop 238Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TOWER INTERNATIONALToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- Gordons Food ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- A-1 EnergyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Robert Ice Truck LineUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Lynn Eddington PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZSHDBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Beech Grove Market IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bullitt 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 Bullitt County.
Sources Checked
across Bullitt County
Severity Distribution
across Bullitt County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bullitt County, two things run higher than the national average across Bullitt County — Superfund (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (112 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Bullitt 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 Bullitt County average
Your land is one point inside Bullitt County
Everything above resolves to Bullitt County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 190K 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 Bullitt County Average
Bullitt County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Bullitt County
- ●One soil character for all of Bullitt County
- ●Frost dates read at Bullitt County's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bullitt County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Bullitt County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bullitt County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bullitt County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bullitt County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bullitt County average
How we know this about Bullitt 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 Bullitt County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Bullitt County
When does frost risk typically end in Bullitt County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bullitt County 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.
How long is the growing season in Bullitt County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bullitt County sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 30, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bullitt County?
The federal record around Bullitt County runs heavier than most — 170 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (112), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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.
Everything above is measured at Bullitt County's scale — its 7a band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bullitt 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 Bullitt County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Bullitt County's own scale — its own ~235-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 170 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bullitt County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bullitt County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Bullitt CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 170 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Bullitt County's boundary and the 190,136 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bullitt County sitting wholly inside the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Bullitt County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Bullitt 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 Bullitt County — the ~235 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 Bullitt County's 190,136 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 170 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 Bullitt Countyread your own land →