Gilbertsville, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — 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, hazelnut, 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 Gilbertsville, 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 Gilbertsville 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 Gilbertsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gilbertsville — the short answer
Gilbertsville, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 652 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 652 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 Gilbertsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gilbertsville's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gilbertsville
Each reading below is measured for Gilbertsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGilbertsville runs about 238 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
MeasuredGilbertsville 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 Gilbertsville is in
Gilbertsville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gilbertsville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Marshall County is mostly Mississippi Valley Loess Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gilbertsville
Every plant below cleared Gilbertsville's own zone 7a and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gilbertsville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Gilbertsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gilbertsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Old GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TVA KENTUCKY HYDRO PLANTSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- Gaf Chemicals CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Old Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Bait ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Marine GardensUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Calvert City Golf & Country ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- I6D0033Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- I6D0084ANitrate · 1.4 mi
- Matlack IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Loves Travel Stop #348Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Former KY Dam ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gilbertsville'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 Gilbertsville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gilbertsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gilbertsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gilbertsville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gilbertsville — Nitrate (168 sites) and Superfund (8 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Gilbertsville
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 Gilbertsville average
Your land is one point inside Gilbertsville
Everything above resolves to Gilbertsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 652 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 Gilbertsville Average
Gilbertsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Gilbertsville
- ●One soil character for all of Gilbertsville
- ●Frost dates read at Gilbertsville's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gilbertsville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gilbertsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gilbertsville, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gilbertsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gilbertsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gilbertsville average
How we know this about Gilbertsville
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 Gilbertsville’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 Gilbertsville
When does frost risk typically end in Gilbertsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gilbertsville typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Gilbertsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gilbertsville typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gilbertsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gilbertsville sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 31, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gilbertsville?
The federal record around Gilbertsville is a meaningful one — 380 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (168), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Gilbertsville?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gilbertsville's scale — its 7a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gilbertsville'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 Gilbertsville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gilbertsville's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 652 acres it covers and 380 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gilbertsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gilbertsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 14 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 380 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gilbertsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gilbertsville's boundary and the 652 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gilbertsville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gilbertsville's 652 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall 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 Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gilbertsville's 652 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gilbertsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 652 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Gilbertsville-wide figureread your own land →