Carter County, in Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Carter County lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Carter County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Carter 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 Carter County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Carter County — the short answer
Carter County, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 262K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 262K 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 6b is Carter County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carter County's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Carter County
Across a year, Carter County accumulates about 3,271 growing degree days above 50°F, about 389 fewer than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 1 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 Carter County
Across Carter County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Latham, Shelocta, and Wernock 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 Carter County
The USDA soil survey maps 87% of Carter County as well drained — but another 13% drains differently: 10% moderately well drained, 3% somewhat poorly drained.
Latham is the most extensive named soil at 33% of mapped acres, then Shelocta (26%) and Wernock (5%).
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 Carter County
Each reading below is measured for Carter 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 Carter 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 Carter 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
MeasuredCarter County runs about 199 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCarter County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Carter County is in
Carter 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 Carter County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Carter County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 199-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 Carter County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Carter County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Carter County 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 gets applied to farmland in Carter County
USGS estimates 2,793 lb of 2,4-d on Carter County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (1,241 lb) and Atrazine (1,127 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 Carter County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Carter County — 151 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Carter County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Carter County
Closest first, across Carter County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Former Grahn Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Richard Tomlin PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Louisville Fire Brick WorksUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Tommys Grocery & GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Vanlandingham GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Isom Kinney PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- W F Burge PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Burchett GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Bills Mobile HomesUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- D28C0021Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- ASHLAND WATER WORKSPFAS · 3.7 mi
- Valley CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carter 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 Carter County.
Total Sites
151
across Carter County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Carter County
Severity Distribution
across Carter County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carter County, two things run higher than the national average across Carter County — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (129 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Carter 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 Carter County average
Your land is one point inside Carter County
Everything above resolves to Carter County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 262K 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 Carter County Average
Carter County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Carter County
- ●One soil character for all of Carter County
- ●Frost dates read at Carter County's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carter County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Carter County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carter County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carter County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carter County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carter County average
How we know this about Carter 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 Carter County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Carter County
When does frost risk typically end in Carter County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carter County typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
How long is the growing season in Carter County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carter County sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 11, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carter County?
The federal record around Carter County shows 151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (129), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Carter County's scale — its 6b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carter 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 Carter County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Carter County's own scale — its own ~199-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 151 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carter County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carter County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Carter CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 151 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Carter County's boundary and the 262,078 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Carter County sitting wholly inside the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Carter 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 Carter County — the ~199 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 Carter County's 262,078 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 151 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 Carter Countyread your own land →