Ghent, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Ghent, 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 Ghent 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 Ghent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ghent — the short answer
Ghent, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 455 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- 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
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 455 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 Ghent's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ghent's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ghent
Each reading below is measured for Ghent itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGhent runs about 218 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
MeasuredGhent 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 Ghent is in
Ghent sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ghent's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carroll County.
What Grows in Ghent
Every plant below cleared Ghent's own zone 7a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ghent?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Ghent
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Ghent, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ghent
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ghent. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cowboys Food Store #109Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LOUISVILLE GAS & ELECTRIC AND KENTUCKY UTILITIES SYSTEM LABORATORYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Former Ghent ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Former W D Platz & Xon ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- NORTH AMERICAN STAINLESSToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- HARSCO METALS - NASToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- NORTH AMERICAN STAINLESSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Ghent SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CITGO RIVER VALLEY EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BENNETT AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SWITZERLAND COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SILGAS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ghent'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 Ghent.
Total Sites
206
within ~10 miles of Ghent
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ghent
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ghent
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ghent, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ghent — Superfund (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (24 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ghent
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 Ghent average
Your land is one point inside Ghent
Everything above resolves to Ghent as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 455 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 Ghent Average
Ghent Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ghent
- ●One soil character for all of Ghent
- ●Frost dates read at Ghent's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ghent's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ghent
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ghent, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ghent averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ghent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ghent average
How we know this about Ghent
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 Ghent’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 Ghent
When does frost risk typically end in Ghent?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ghent typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Ghent?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ghent 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 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ghent?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ghent sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 24, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ghent?
The federal record around Ghent is a meaningful one — 206 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (113), 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 Ghent?
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 Ghent's scale — its 7a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ghent'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 Ghent’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ghent's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 455 acres it covers and 206 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ghent's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ghent's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 7 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 206 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ghent, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ghent's boundary and the 455 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ghent's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ghentlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ghent's 455 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carroll County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carroll 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 Carroll County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ghent's 455 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ghent you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 455 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 Ghent-wide figureread your own land →
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