Livingston County, in Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Livingston 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
Livingston County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Livingston 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 Livingston County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Livingston County — the short answer
Livingston County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 200K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 200K 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 Livingston County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Livingston County's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Livingston County
Across a year, Livingston County accumulates about 4,154 growing degree days above 50°F, about 494 more than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 105 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 2,358 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 Livingston County
Across Livingston County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Hosmer, Zanesville, and Frondorf are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
17%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Livingston County
The USDA soil survey maps 45% of Livingston County as moderately well drained — but another 44% drains differently: 38% well drained, 5% somewhat poorly drained.
Hosmer is the most extensive named soil at 22% of mapped acres, then Zanesville (15%) and Frondorf (8%).
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 Livingston County
Each reading below is measured for Livingston 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 Livingston County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C/D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Livingston County runs about pH 5.5–6.2, 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
MeasuredLivingston County runs about 239 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
MeasuredLivingston 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 Livingston County is in
Livingston County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Interior Plateau (82%) and Interior River Valleys and Hills (18%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Livingston County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Livingston County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 239-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 Livingston 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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Livingston County
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Livingston County
USGS estimates 83,055 lb of Glyphosate on Livingston County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (34,221 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (32,565 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 Livingston County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Livingston County — 128 documented sites across 6 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.
There's a meaningful federal record across Livingston 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 Livingston County
Closest first, across Livingston County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dyers Hill Fluorspar DepositsMining · 1.2 mi
- US 60 PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Davis RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Lafarge West Inc - Three Rivers QuarryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Livingston Co Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Newtons MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Larkin Croft ProspectMining · 2.2 mi
- LEDBETTER WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 2.3 mi
- Burna RestaurantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Browns Service & RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Burna BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Livingston Co Maintenance GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Livingston 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 Livingston County.
Total Sites
128
across Livingston County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Livingston County
Severity Distribution
across Livingston County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Livingston County, two things run higher than the national average across Livingston County — PFAS (4 sites) and Mining (12 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Livingston 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 Livingston County average
Your land is one point inside Livingston County
Everything above resolves to Livingston County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 200K 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 Livingston County Average
Livingston County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Livingston County
- ●One soil character for all of Livingston County
- ●Frost dates read at Livingston County's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Livingston County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Livingston County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Livingston County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Livingston County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Livingston County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Livingston County average
How we know this about Livingston 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 Livingston County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Livingston County
When does frost risk typically end in Livingston County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Livingston County typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
How long is the growing season in Livingston County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Livingston County sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 29, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Livingston County?
The federal record around Livingston County is a meaningful one — 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), the nearest Mining record about 1.2 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 Livingston County's scale — its 7a band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Livingston 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 Livingston County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Livingston County's own scale — its own ~239-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 128 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Livingston County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Livingston County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Livingston CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 128 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 1.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Livingston County's boundary and the 200,295 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Livingston County spans, Interior Plateau the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Livingston County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Livingston 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 Livingston County — the ~239 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 Livingston County's 200,295 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 128 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 Livingston Countyread your own land →