Freeburn, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Freeburn, 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 Freeburn 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 Freeburn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Freeburn — the short answer
Freeburn, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 773 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 773 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 Freeburn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Freeburn's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Freeburn
Each reading below is measured for Freeburn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFreeburn 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
MeasuredFreeburn 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 Freeburn is in
Freeburn sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Freeburn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Freeburn
Every plant below cleared Freeburn'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 Freeburn?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Freeburn
Survey cells within 31 miles of Freeburn checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 68 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Freeburn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Freeburn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bellas Gas & GoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Freeburn AshlandUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Mig-0048Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- BLANKENSHIP DEPT STORESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FRANKLIN COLLINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- E029Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Blackberry SupermarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- E041Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- Triple B Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- E034Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- Blackberry SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- MJ Pizza & MoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Freeburn'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 Freeburn.
Total Sites
253
within ~10 miles of Freeburn
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Freeburn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Freeburn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Freeburn, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 104 sites within ~10 miles of Freeburn. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Freeburn
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 Freeburn average
Your land is one point inside Freeburn
Everything above resolves to Freeburn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 773 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 Freeburn Average
Freeburn Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Freeburn
- ●One soil character for all of Freeburn
- ●Frost dates read at Freeburn's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Freeburn's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Freeburn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Freeburn, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Freeburn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Freeburn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Freeburn average
How we know this about Freeburn
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 Freeburn’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 Freeburn
When does frost risk typically end in Freeburn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Freeburn typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Freeburn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Freeburn typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Freeburn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Freeburn sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 25, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Freeburn?
The federal record around Freeburn is a meaningful one — 253 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), 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 Freeburn?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Freeburn's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Freeburn'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 Freeburn’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Freeburn's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 773 acres it covers and 253 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Freeburn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Freeburn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 8 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 253 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Freeburn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Freeburn's boundary and the 773 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 Freeburn's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Freeburn 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 Freeburn's 773 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike 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 Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Freeburn's 773 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Freeburn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 773 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 Freeburn-wide figureread your own land →
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