East Bernstadt, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in East Bernstadt, 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 East Bernstadt 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 East Bernstadt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Bernstadt — the short answer
East Bernstadt, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 East Bernstadt's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Bernstadt's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Bernstadt
Each reading below is measured for East Bernstadt itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Bernstadt runs about 214 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
MeasuredEast Bernstadt 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 East Bernstadt is in
East Bernstadt sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at East Bernstadt's own centroid rather than borrowed from Laurel County.
What Grows in East Bernstadt
Every plant below cleared East Bernstadt's own zone 7a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Bernstadt?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 East Bernstadt
Survey cells within 31 miles of East Bernstadt checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 113 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Bernstadt
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Bernstadt. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ACCENT MARBLE INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- East Bernstadt ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- J & B GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Con-Way Central Express XCIUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CLIMAN TRANSPORT SODIUM HYDROSULFITE RELEASESuperfund · 1.0 mi
- Truitt Brothers IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Apeyard MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- EB Quickstop #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Gradys GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Glenview MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- High Speed Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Jeff Ison PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Bernstadt'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 East Bernstadt.
Total Sites
201
within ~10 miles of East Bernstadt
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Bernstadt
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Bernstadt
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Bernstadt, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of East Bernstadt — Underground Storage Tanks (166 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in East Bernstadt
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 East Bernstadt average
Your land is one point inside East Bernstadt
Everything above resolves to East Bernstadt as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 town 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 East Bernstadt Average
East Bernstadt Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across East Bernstadt
- ●One soil character for all of East Bernstadt
- ●Frost dates read at East Bernstadt's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Bernstadt's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Bernstadt
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Bernstadt, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Bernstadt averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Bernstadt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Bernstadt average
How we know this about East Bernstadt
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at East Bernstadt’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 East Bernstadt
When does frost risk typically end in East Bernstadt?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Bernstadt typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in East Bernstadt?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Bernstadt typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Bernstadt?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Bernstadt sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 19, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Bernstadt?
The federal record around East Bernstadt is a meaningful one — 201 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (166), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in East Bernstadt?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Bernstadt's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Bernstadt'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 East Bernstadt’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at East Bernstadt's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,352 acres it covers and 201 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Bernstadt's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Bernstadt's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 2 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 201 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Bernstadt, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Bernstadt's boundary and the 1,352 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Bernstadt's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around East Bernstadt 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 East Bernstadt's 1,352 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Laurel County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Laurel 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 Laurel County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Bernstadt's 1,352 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Bernstadt you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,352 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.6 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 East Bernstadt-wide figureread your own land →