Kenton County, in Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Kenton County lies within the Ohio River Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Kenton County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kenton 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 Kenton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kenton County — the short answer
Kenton County, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 103K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 103K 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 Kenton County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kenton County's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Kenton County
Across a year, Kenton County accumulates about 3,605 growing degree days above 50°F, about 55 fewer than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 47 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 Kenton County
Across Kenton County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Eden, Faywood, and Nicholson are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.6–6.5, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
18%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Kenton County
The USDA soil survey maps 68% of Kenton County as well drained — but another 28% drains differently: 26% moderately well drained, 1% somewhat poorly drained.
Eden is the most extensive named soil at 34% of mapped acres, then Faywood (25%) and Nicholson (20%).
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 Kenton County
Each reading below is measured for Kenton 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 Kenton 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 Kenton County runs about pH 5.6–6.5, 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
MeasuredKenton County runs about 224 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
MeasuredKenton 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 Kenton County is in
Kenton 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 Kenton County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Kenton County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 224-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 Kenton 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 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 10 — 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 Kenton County
Spotted lanternfly documented 12 miles from Kenton County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Kenton County
USGS estimates 1,600 lb of Glyphosate on Kenton County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (640 lb) and Metolachlor-s (586 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 Kenton County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kenton County — 400 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 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 Kenton 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 Kenton County
Closest first, across Kenton County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESTERN FLEMING WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 2300 ft
- United Dairy Farmers #165Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Judes Custom Exhaust & Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Kenton Co Police DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Blue PantryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Simon Kenton High School & Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KROGER #475-14Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- Kroger Marketplace & Fuel Center #475Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Independence Public UtilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Bills MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- T & A TackleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Harneys Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kenton 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 Kenton County.
Total Sites
400
across Kenton County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Kenton County
Severity Distribution
across Kenton County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kenton County, two things run higher than the national average across Kenton County — Toxics Release Inventory (29 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (280 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Kenton 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 Kenton County average
Your land is one point inside Kenton County
Everything above resolves to Kenton County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 103K 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 Kenton County Average
Kenton County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Kenton County
- ●One soil character for all of Kenton County
- ●Frost dates read at Kenton County's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kenton County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kenton County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kenton County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kenton County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kenton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kenton County average
How we know this about Kenton 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 Kenton County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kenton County
When does frost risk typically end in Kenton County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kenton 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 Kenton County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kenton County sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 27, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kenton County?
The federal record around Kenton County is a meaningful one — 400 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (280), the nearest PFAS record about 0.4 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 Kenton County's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kenton 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 Kenton County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Kenton County's own scale — its own ~224-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 400 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kenton County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kenton County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Kenton CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 400 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Kenton County's boundary and the 102,640 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kenton County sitting wholly inside the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Kenton County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Kenton 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 Kenton County — the ~224 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 Kenton County's 102,640 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 400 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 Kenton Countyread your own land →