Drakesboro, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Drakesboro, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Drakesboro lot. 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 Drakesboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Drakesboro — the short answer
Drakesboro, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 353 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 353 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Drakesboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Drakesboro's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Drakesboro
Each reading below is measured for Drakesboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDrakesboro runs about 228 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
MeasuredDrakesboro 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 Drakesboro is in
Drakesboro sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Drakesboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Muhlenberg County.
What Grows in Drakesboro
Every plant below cleared Drakesboro's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Drakesboro?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Drakesboro
Survey cells within 31 miles of Drakesboro checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 74 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Drakesboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Drakesboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Smith PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Drakesboro Consolidated SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- US TVA PARADISE FOSSIL PLANTSuperfund · 1100 ft
- Pryors Gulf Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Sinclair UndergroundUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PRIMARY RECOVERY CORPORATIONSuperfund · 1800 ft
- Drakesboro WWTPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Country Boy Truck PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- I11B0012Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- HARSCO MINERALSToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- Quality Plus #809Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Eagles VIIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Drakesboro'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 Drakesboro.
Total Sites
209
within ~10 miles of Drakesboro
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Drakesboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Drakesboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Drakesboro, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Drakesboro — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Drakesboro
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 Drakesboro average
Your land is one point inside Drakesboro
Everything above resolves to Drakesboro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 353 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 city 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Drakesboro Average
Drakesboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Drakesboro
- ●One soil character for all of Drakesboro
- ●Frost dates read at Drakesboro's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Drakesboro's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Drakesboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Drakesboro, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Drakesboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Drakesboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Drakesboro average
How we know this about Drakesboro
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Drakesboro’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Drakesboro
When does frost risk typically end in Drakesboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Drakesboro typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Drakesboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Drakesboro typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Drakesboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Drakesboro sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 25, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Drakesboro?
The federal record around Drakesboro is a meaningful one — 209 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (148), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Drakesboro?
From about Oct 9 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Drakesboro's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Drakesboro's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Drakesboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Drakesboro's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 353 acres it covers and 209 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Drakesboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Drakesboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 8 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 209 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Drakesboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Drakesboro's boundary and the 353 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Drakesboro's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Drakesboro checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Drakesboro's 353 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Muhlenberg County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Muhlenberg County
- The growing challenges every Kentucky grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kentucky
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Muhlenberg County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Drakesboro's 353 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Drakesboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 353 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Drakesboro-wide figureread your own land →