Fulton, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fulton, 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 Fulton 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 Fulton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fulton — the short answer
Fulton, Kentucky: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- 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 7b is Fulton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fulton's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fulton
Each reading below is measured for Fulton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFulton runs about 232 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
MeasuredFulton sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Fulton is in
Fulton sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fulton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fulton County.
What Grows in Fulton
Every plant below cleared Fulton's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fulton?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Fulton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fulton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Canadian National / Illinois Central Railroad - Fulton RailyardUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- K4C0069Nitrate · 650 ft
- K4C0070Nitrate · 650 ft
- DURA AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 850 ft
- Hunters One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- City of FultonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Suiter Service 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JUST TRAILERS 2Brownfields · 2300 ft
- K4C0018Nitrate · 2300 ft
- Earl Harrison PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- LuckysUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- JUST TRAILERS 1Brownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fulton'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 Fulton.
Total Sites
211
within ~10 miles of Fulton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fulton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fulton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fulton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fulton — Nitrate (130 sites) and CAFO (4 sites). 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Fulton
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 Fulton average
Your land is one point inside Fulton
Everything above resolves to Fulton 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 Fulton Average
Fulton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Fulton
- ●One soil character for all of Fulton
- ●Frost dates read at Fulton's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fulton's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fulton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fulton, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fulton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fulton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fulton average
How we know this about Fulton
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 Fulton’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 Fulton
When does frost risk typically end in Fulton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fulton typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Fulton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fulton typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fulton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fulton sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 27, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fulton?
The federal record around Fulton is a meaningful one — 211 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (130), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fulton?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fulton's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fulton'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 Fulton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fulton's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,852 acres it covers and 211 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fulton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fulton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 10 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 211 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fulton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fulton's boundary and the 1,852 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fulton's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fulton's 1,852 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fulton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fulton 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 Fulton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fulton's 1,852 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fulton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,852 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fulton-wide figureread your own land →