Fredonia, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fredonia, 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 Fredonia 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 Fredonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fredonia — the short answer
Fredonia, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 397 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- 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
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 397 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 Fredonia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fredonia's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fredonia
Each reading below is measured for Fredonia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFredonia runs about 234 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
MeasuredFredonia 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 Fredonia is in
Fredonia sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fredonia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Caldwell County.
What Grows in Fredonia
Every plant below cleared Fredonia's own zone 7a and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fredonia?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Fredonia
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fredonia checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 106 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fredonia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fredonia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fredonia Flea MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Valley Inn RestaurantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Fredonia Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Akridge Farm SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Fredonia AshlandUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Fredonia Food & More MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Build Rite LumberUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Pigmy MineMining · 2.0 mi
- Western Kentucky DistrictMining · 2.2 mi
- I07B0014Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- Eva Tanguay MineMining · 2.2 mi
- Crayne BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fredonia'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 Fredonia.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of Fredonia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fredonia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fredonia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fredonia, Mining runs higher than the national average — 19 sites within ~10 miles of Fredonia. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Fredonia
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 Fredonia average
Your land is one point inside Fredonia
Everything above resolves to Fredonia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 397 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 Fredonia Average
Fredonia Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Fredonia
- ●One soil character for all of Fredonia
- ●Frost dates read at Fredonia's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fredonia's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fredonia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fredonia, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fredonia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fredonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fredonia average
How we know this about Fredonia
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 Fredonia’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 Fredonia
When does frost risk typically end in Fredonia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fredonia typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Fredonia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fredonia 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 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fredonia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fredonia sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 28, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fredonia?
The federal record around Fredonia is a meaningful one — 149 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), 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 Fredonia?
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 Fredonia's scale — its 7a band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fredonia'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 Fredonia’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fredonia's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 397 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fredonia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fredonia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 11 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fredonia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fredonia's boundary and the 397 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fredonia's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fredonia 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 Fredonia's 397 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Caldwell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Caldwell 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 Caldwell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fredonia's 397 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fredonia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 397 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 Fredonia-wide figureread your own land →