Dry Ridge, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dry Ridge, 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 Dry Ridge 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 Dry Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dry Ridge — the short answer
Dry Ridge, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 6b is Dry Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dry Ridge's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dry Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Dry Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDry Ridge 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
MeasuredDry Ridge 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 Dry Ridge is in
Dry Ridge sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dry Ridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Dry Ridge
Every plant below cleared Dry Ridge's own zone 6b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dry Ridge?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Dry Ridge
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Dry Ridge, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dry Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dry Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Speedway #7404Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Dry Ridge MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Road Ranger #178Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Dry Ridge BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Murphy USA #7631Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WAL-MART SUPERCENTER #584Brownfields · 2100 ft
- I-75 GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Dry Ridge General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DANA LIGHT AXLE MANUFACTURING LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- DANA LIGHT AXLE MANUFACTURING LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Grant Co Foods IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Stewart Truck Line IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dry Ridge'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 Dry Ridge.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Dry Ridge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dry Ridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dry Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dry Ridge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dry Ridge — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (79 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Dry Ridge
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 Dry Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Dry Ridge
Everything above resolves to Dry Ridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Dry Ridge Average
Dry Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Dry Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Dry Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Dry Ridge's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dry Ridge's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dry Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dry Ridge, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dry Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dry Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dry Ridge average
How we know this about Dry Ridge
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 Dry Ridge’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 Dry Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Dry Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dry Ridge 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.
When is the first frost in Dry Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dry Ridge typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dry Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dry Ridge 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 Dry Ridge?
The federal record around Dry Ridge is a meaningful one — 95 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dry Ridge?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dry Ridge's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dry Ridge'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 Dry Ridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dry Ridge's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,304 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dry Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dry Ridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 10 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dry Ridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dry Ridge's boundary and the 3,304 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dry Ridge's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dry Ridgelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dry Ridge's 3,304 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dry Ridge's 3,304 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dry Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,304 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Dry Ridge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Wider growing context
What grows across KentuckyDry Ridge sits outside our named growing regions, so Kentucky as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides