Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Mitchell, 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 Fort Mitchell 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 Fort Mitchell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fort Mitchell — the short answer
Fort Mitchell, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Fort Mitchell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Mitchell's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Mitchell
Each reading below is measured for Fort Mitchell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Mitchell runs about 225 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
MeasuredFort Mitchell 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 Fort Mitchell is in
Fort Mitchell sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Mitchell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kenton County.
What Grows in Fort Mitchell
Every plant below cleared Fort Mitchell's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Mitchell?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 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.
Documented around Fort Mitchell
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Fort Mitchell, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort Mitchell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Mitchell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fort Mitchell SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- KROGER CO-STORE 477Brownfields · 1400 ft
- Highland CemeteryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- City Of Fort MitchellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Kroger 477Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Huntington Bank Of Kenton CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Korzenborn Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Fort Mitchell Country ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- R W Porter PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Phillips 66 Co 019897Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Drawbridge HotelUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- THE HOME DEPOTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Mitchell'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 Fort Mitchell.
Total Sites
2,141
within ~10 miles of Fort Mitchell
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
32 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Mitchell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Mitchell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Mitchell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort Mitchell — Toxics Release Inventory (182 sites) and Superfund (32 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Fort Mitchell
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 Fort Mitchell average
Your land is one point inside Fort Mitchell
Everything above resolves to Fort Mitchell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Fort Mitchell Average
Fort Mitchell Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fort Mitchell
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Mitchell
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Mitchell's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Mitchell's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Mitchell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Mitchell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Mitchell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Mitchell average
How we know this about Fort Mitchell
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 Fort Mitchell’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 Fort Mitchell
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Mitchell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Mitchell 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 Fort Mitchell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Mitchell 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 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Mitchell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Mitchell sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 28, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Mitchell?
The federal record around Fort Mitchell is a meaningful one — 2,141 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,340), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fort Mitchell?
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 Fort Mitchell's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Mitchell'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 Fort Mitchell’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort Mitchell's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,982 acres it covers and 2,141 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Mitchell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Mitchell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 11 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,141 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Mitchell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Mitchell's boundary and the 1,982 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Mitchell's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fort Mitchelllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Mitchell's 1,982 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kenton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kenton 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 Kenton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Mitchell's 1,982 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Mitchell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,982 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 Fort Mitchell-wide figureread your own land →