Farley, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Farley, 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 Farley 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 Farley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Farley — the short answer
Farley, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Farley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Farley's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Farley
Each reading below is measured for Farley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFarley runs about 236 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
MeasuredFarley 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 Farley is in
Farley sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Farley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: McCracken County is mostly Mississippi Valley Loess Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Farley
Every plant below cleared Farley's own zone 7a and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Farley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Farley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Farley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Quality ElectricUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Johnnie Griffiths PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- United Parcel Service - PaducahUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Superway #3245Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- King Auto SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Parcel 91 Item No 1 623.02Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TREES N TRENDS INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- Industrial Sheet MetalUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE, INC. - KYPADBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Usher Transport IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AMTROL INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- Pressure Pak Of KY IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Farley'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 Farley.
Total Sites
527
within ~10 miles of Farley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Farley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Farley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Farley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 343 sites within ~10 miles of Farley. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Farley
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 Farley average
Your land is one point inside Farley
Everything above resolves to Farley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Farley Average
Farley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Farley
- ●One soil character for all of Farley
- ●Frost dates read at Farley's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Farley's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Farley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Farley, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Farley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Farley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Farley average
How we know this about Farley
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 Farley’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 Farley
When does frost risk typically end in Farley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Farley typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Farley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Farley typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Farley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Farley sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 28, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Farley?
The federal record around Farley is a meaningful one — 527 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (343), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Farley?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Farley's scale — its 7a band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Farley'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 Farley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Farley's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,783 acres it covers and 527 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Farley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Farley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 11 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 527 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Farley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Farley's boundary and the 3,783 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Farley sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Farley's 3,783 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McCracken County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McCracken 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 McCracken County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Farley's 3,783 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Farley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,783 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Farley-wide figureread your own land →