Trimble County, in Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Trimble 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
Trimble County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Trimble 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 Trimble County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Trimble County — the short answer
Trimble County, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 95K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 95K 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 Trimble County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Trimble County's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Trimble County
Across a year, Trimble County accumulates about 3,419 growing degree days above 50°F, about 241 fewer than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 7 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 Trimble County
Across Trimble County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Fairmount, Woolper, and Brassfield are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9–7.2, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
16%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Trimble County
The USDA soil survey maps 91% of Trimble County as well drained — but another 4% drains differently: 3% moderately well drained.
Fairmount is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Woolper (12%) and Brassfield (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 Trimble County
Each reading below is measured for Trimble 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 Trimble 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 Trimble County runs about pH 5.9–7.2, 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
MeasuredTrimble County runs about 215 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
MeasuredTrimble 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 Trimble County is in
Trimble 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 Trimble County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Trimble County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 215-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 Trimble County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Trimble County
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Trimble County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Trimble County
USGS estimates 15,355 lb of Glyphosate on Trimble County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (5,810 lb) and Metolachlor-s (5,183 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 Trimble County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Trimble County — 46 documented sites across 5 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 Trimble County is light. Growing food here starts from a strong position — a quick pass over the map tells you whether any recorded site sits near your land, and if one does, that's information to plant with, not a reason to stop.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Trimble County
Closest first, across Trimble County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- C18D0010Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- Trimble Co Maintenance GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Wheeler PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Trimble Co Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Bedford Stop N Go IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Former Crestwood Auto SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- LOUISVILLE GAS & ELECTRIC CO-BEDFORD CITY GATEBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- Bedford ValeroUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Hacks Wheel AlignmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- DJs Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Wheeler Oil Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Trimble Co Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Trimble 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 Trimble County.
Sources Checked
across Trimble County
Severity Distribution
across Trimble County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Trimble County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 16 sites across Trimble County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Trimble 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 Trimble County average
Your land is one point inside Trimble County
Everything above resolves to Trimble County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 95K 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 Trimble County Average
Trimble County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Trimble County
- ●One soil character for all of Trimble County
- ●Frost dates read at Trimble County's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Trimble County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Trimble County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Trimble County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Trimble County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Trimble County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Trimble County average
How we know this about Trimble 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 Trimble County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Trimble County
When does frost risk typically end in Trimble County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Trimble County typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
How long is the growing season in Trimble County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Trimble County sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 21, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Trimble County?
The federal record around Trimble County is light — 46 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.5 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
Everything above is measured at Trimble County's scale — its 6b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Trimble 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 Trimble County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Trimble County's own scale — its own ~215-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 46 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Trimble County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Trimble County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Trimble CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 46 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Trimble County's boundary and the 94,573 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Trimble County sitting wholly inside the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Trimble 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 Trimble County — the ~215 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 Trimble County's 94,573 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 46 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 Trimble Countyread your own land →