Fountain Run, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fountain Run, 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 Fountain Run 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 Fountain Run — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fountain Run — the short answer
Fountain Run, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 842 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 842 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 Fountain Run's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fountain Run's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fountain Run
Each reading below is measured for Fountain Run itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFountain Run 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
MeasuredFountain Run 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 Fountain Run is in
Fountain Run sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fountain Run's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Fountain Run
Every plant below cleared Fountain Run's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fountain Run?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Fountain Run
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fountain Run. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Veco Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Milk BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- South Central RTC Fountain Run Central OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Hagans Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Flappers MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Former Fountain Run Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Fountain RunMining · 1.7 mi
- CPC FuelUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Wheelers Akersville MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- K15B0058Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- Smiths Flippin MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Johnsons GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fountain Run'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 Fountain Run.
Total Sites
73
within ~10 miles of Fountain Run
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fountain Run
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fountain Run
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fountain Run, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Fountain Run. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fountain Run
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 Fountain Run average
Your land is one point inside Fountain Run
Everything above resolves to Fountain Run as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 842 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 Fountain Run Average
Fountain Run Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Fountain Run
- ●One soil character for all of Fountain Run
- ●Frost dates read at Fountain Run's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fountain Run's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fountain Run
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fountain Run, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fountain Run averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fountain Run — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fountain Run average
How we know this about Fountain Run
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 Fountain Run’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 Fountain Run
When does frost risk typically end in Fountain Run?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fountain Run typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Fountain Run?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fountain Run typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fountain Run?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fountain Run sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 24, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fountain Run?
The federal record around Fountain Run shows 73 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Fountain Run?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fountain Run's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fountain Run'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 Fountain Run’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fountain Run's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 842 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fountain Run's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fountain Run's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 7 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fountain Run, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fountain Run's boundary and the 842 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fountain Run's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fountain Run's 842 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fountain Run's 842 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fountain Run you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 842 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Fountain Run-wide figureread your own land →