Ferguson, 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ferguson, 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 Ferguson 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 Ferguson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ferguson — the short answer
Ferguson, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Ferguson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ferguson's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ferguson
Each reading below is measured for Ferguson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFerguson runs about 220 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
MeasuredFerguson 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 Ferguson is in
Ferguson sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ferguson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pulaski County.
What Grows in Ferguson
Every plant below cleared Ferguson's own zone 7a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ferguson?
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 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Ferguson
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ferguson checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 116 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ferguson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ferguson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IKERD TERMINAL CO LLCToxics Release Inventory · 450 ft
- J & J Gas & SnackUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Crane Plumbing LTD - Ferguson PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Ikerd & Bandy Coal CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AMERICAN STANDARD BRAND- FIAT PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- UGN INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- Continental Refining Company LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Campbells Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CONTINENTAL REFINING CO LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CONTINENTAL REFINING CO LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- CONTINENTAL REFINING COMPANY LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- UGN IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ferguson'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 Ferguson.
Total Sites
295
within ~10 miles of Ferguson
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ferguson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ferguson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ferguson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ferguson — Underground Storage Tanks (255 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Ferguson
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 Ferguson average
Your land is one point inside Ferguson
Everything above resolves to Ferguson 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 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 Ferguson Average
Ferguson Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ferguson
- ●One soil character for all of Ferguson
- ●Frost dates read at Ferguson's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ferguson's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ferguson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ferguson, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ferguson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ferguson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ferguson average
How we know this about Ferguson
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 Ferguson’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 Ferguson
When does frost risk typically end in Ferguson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ferguson 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 Ferguson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ferguson 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 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ferguson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ferguson sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 23, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ferguson?
The federal record around Ferguson is a meaningful one — 295 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (255), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ferguson?
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 Ferguson's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ferguson'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 Ferguson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ferguson's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,257 acres it covers and 295 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ferguson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ferguson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 6 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 295 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ferguson, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ferguson's boundary and the 1,257 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ferguson's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ferguson 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 Ferguson's 1,257 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pulaski County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pulaski 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 Pulaski County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ferguson's 1,257 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ferguson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,257 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ferguson-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Wider growing context
What grows across KentuckyFerguson sits outside our named growing regions, so Kentucky as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides