Larue 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
Larue County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Larue 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 Larue County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Larue County — the short answer
Larue County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 167K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 167K 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 Larue County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Larue County's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Larue County
Across a year, Larue County accumulates about 3,792 growing degree days above 50°F, about 132 more than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 76 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 Larue County
Across Larue County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Crider, Vertrees, and Sonora are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
31%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Larue County
The USDA soil survey maps 81% of Larue County as well drained — but another 18% drains differently: 12% moderately well drained, 5% somewhat poorly drained.
Crider is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Vertrees (19%) and Sonora (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 Larue County
Each reading below is measured for Larue 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 Larue County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Larue County runs about pH 5.9, 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
MeasuredLarue County runs about 223 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
MeasuredLarue 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 Larue County is in
Larue 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 Larue County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Larue County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 223-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 Larue County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (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 Larue County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Larue County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 92 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly58 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Larue County
USGS estimates 67,932 lb of Glyphosate on Larue County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (19,910 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (15,763 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 Larue County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Larue County — 107 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 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 Larue 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 Larue County
Closest first, across Larue County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 210 Productions IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HODGENVILLE WATER WORKSPFAS · 1.5 mi
- Larue Co Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Former Larue Co State Maintenance GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Lincolns General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Valero Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Abe Lincoln Birth Place National Historic SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- LARUE HIGH SCHOOL MERCURY SPILLSuperfund · 2.1 mi
- MedifirstUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Y Not Stop IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Former Larue Co School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Old Firestone BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Larue 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 Larue County.
Total Sites
107
across Larue County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Larue County
Severity Distribution
across Larue County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Larue County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites across Larue County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Larue 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 Larue County average
Your land is one point inside Larue County
Everything above resolves to Larue County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 167K 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 Larue County Average
Larue County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Larue County
- ●One soil character for all of Larue County
- ●Frost dates read at Larue County's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Larue County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Larue County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Larue County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Larue County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Larue County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Larue County average
How we know this about Larue 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 Larue County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Larue County
When does frost risk typically end in Larue County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Larue County typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Larue County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Larue County sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 24, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Larue County?
The federal record around Larue County is a meaningful one — 107 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Larue County's scale — its 7a band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Larue 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 Larue County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Larue County's own scale — its own ~223-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 107 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Larue County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Larue County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Larue CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 107 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Larue County's boundary and the 167,082 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Larue County sitting wholly inside the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Larue County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Larue 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 Larue County — the ~223 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 Larue County's 167,082 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 107 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 Larue Countyread your own land →