Ekron, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ekron, 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 Ekron 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 Ekron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ekron — the short answer
Ekron, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 104 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 104 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 Ekron's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ekron's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ekron
Each reading below is measured for Ekron itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEkron runs about 221 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
MeasuredEkron 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 Ekron is in
Ekron sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ekron's own centroid rather than borrowed from Meade County.
What Grows in Ekron
Every plant below cleared Ekron's own zone 7a and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ekron?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Ekron
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ekron checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 87 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ekron
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ekron. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ekron GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- F15A0009Nitrate · 650 ft
- Claude L Withers PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Derby Tank Car & ManufacturingUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- F15A0011Nitrate · 1300 ft
- Lucas PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- F15A0075BNitrate · 1.2 mi
- F15A0076Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- F15A0080Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- BRANDENBURG WATER WORKSPFAS · 2.7 mi
- F15A0077Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- Kroger Fuel L-903Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ekron'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 Ekron.
Total Sites
194
within ~10 miles of Ekron
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ekron
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ekron
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ekron, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ekron — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (84 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ekron
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 Ekron average
Your land is one point inside Ekron
Everything above resolves to Ekron as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 104 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 Ekron Average
Ekron Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ekron
- ●One soil character for all of Ekron
- ●Frost dates read at Ekron's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ekron's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ekron
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ekron, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ekron averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ekron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ekron average
How we know this about Ekron
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 Ekron’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 Ekron
When does frost risk typically end in Ekron?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ekron typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Ekron?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ekron typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ekron?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ekron sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 23, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ekron?
The federal record around Ekron shows 194 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (99), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ekron?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ekron's scale — its 7a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ekron'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 Ekron’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ekron's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 104 acres it covers and 194 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ekron's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ekron's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 6 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 194 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ekron, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ekron's boundary and the 104 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ekron's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ekron 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 Ekron's 104 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Meade County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Meade 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 Meade County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ekron's 104 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ekron you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 104 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 Ekron-wide figureread your own land →
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