Garrard 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Garrard County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Garrard 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 Garrard County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Garrard County — the short answer
Garrard County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 147K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 147K 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 Garrard County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garrard County's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Garrard County
Across a year, Garrard County accumulates about 3,689 growing degree days above 50°F, about 29 more than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 63 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 Garrard County
Across Garrard County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Faywood, Lowell, and Culleoka are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
14%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Garrard County
The USDA soil survey maps 93% of Garrard County as well drained — but another 5% drains differently: 4% moderately well drained, 1% somewhat poorly drained.
Faywood is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Lowell (15%) and Culleoka (12%).
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 Garrard County
Each reading below is measured for Garrard 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 Garrard 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 Garrard County runs about pH 5.8–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredGarrard County runs about 221 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
MeasuredGarrard 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 Garrard County is in
Garrard 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 Garrard County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Garrard County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 221-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 Garrard County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Garrard County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Garrard County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 78 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly7 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Garrard County
USGS estimates 11,502 lb of 2,4-d on Garrard County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (5,660 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,773 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 Garrard County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Garrard County — 79 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Garrard 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 Garrard County
Closest first, across Garrard County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lister Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 52 ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Saint Williams Catholic ChurchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Canoe Creek ApparelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- G & W Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Lancaster #120Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- VIP ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Convenient Food Mart 160Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Danville Bulk Plant 211Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Smith Variety ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Lancaster Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Lancaster Street ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garrard 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 Garrard County.
Total Sites
79
across Garrard County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Garrard County
Severity Distribution
across Garrard County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Garrard County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 59 sites across Garrard County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Garrard 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 Garrard County average
Your land is one point inside Garrard County
Everything above resolves to Garrard County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 147K 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 Garrard County Average
Garrard County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Garrard County
- ●One soil character for all of Garrard County
- ●Frost dates read at Garrard County's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garrard County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Garrard County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garrard County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garrard County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garrard County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garrard County average
How we know this about Garrard 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 Garrard County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Garrard County
When does frost risk typically end in Garrard County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garrard County typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
How long is the growing season in Garrard County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garrard County sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 24, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garrard County?
The federal record around Garrard County shows 79 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 Garrard County's scale — its 7a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garrard 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 Garrard County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Garrard County's own scale — its own ~221-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 79 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garrard County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Garrard County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Garrard CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 79 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Garrard County's boundary and the 147,152 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Garrard County sitting wholly inside the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Garrard County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Garrard 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 Garrard County — the ~221 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 Garrard County's 147,152 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 79 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 Garrard Countyread your own land →