Fairfield, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Fairfield, 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 Fairfield 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 Fairfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairfield — the short answer
Fairfield, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 183 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 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 183 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 Fairfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairfield's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairfield
Each reading below is measured for Fairfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFairfield runs about 222 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
MeasuredFairfield 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 Fairfield is in
Fairfield sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fairfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nelson County.
What Grows in Fairfield
Every plant below cleared Fairfield's own zone 6b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairfield?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 8 — 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 Fairfield
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fairfield checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 61 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fairfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Service Station 11-D BP 059Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Tyagi Enterprises LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- F18A0007Nitrate · 1400 ft
- F18B0007Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- Creekside Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- F18C0010Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- Bobs Small EngineUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Bloomfield Minit MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Blazers Food Mart LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Big 3 Tractor Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Crenshaw Lenore StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- JLSB Inc DBA Barts Mart MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairfield'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 Fairfield.
Total Sites
164
within ~10 miles of Fairfield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fairfield — Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (124 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Fairfield
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 Fairfield average
Your land is one point inside Fairfield
Everything above resolves to Fairfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 183 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 Fairfield Average
Fairfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fairfield
- ●One soil character for all of Fairfield
- ●Frost dates read at Fairfield's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairfield's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairfield, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairfield average
How we know this about Fairfield
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 Fairfield’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 Fairfield
When does frost risk typically end in Fairfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairfield 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 Fairfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairfield 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 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairfield sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 25, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairfield?
The federal record around Fairfield shows 164 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fairfield?
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 Fairfield's scale — its 6b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairfield'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 Fairfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fairfield's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 183 acres it covers and 164 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fairfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 8 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 164 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairfield's boundary and the 183 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairfield's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fairfield 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 Fairfield's 183 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nelson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nelson 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 Nelson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairfield's 183 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 183 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 Fairfield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Wider growing context
What grows across KentuckyFairfield sits outside our named growing regions, so Kentucky as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides