Greenup, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Greenup, 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 Greenup 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 Greenup — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Greenup — the short answer
Greenup, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 6b is Greenup's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Greenup's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Greenup
Each reading below is measured for Greenup itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreenup runs about 215 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
MeasuredGreenup sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Greenup is in
Greenup sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Greenup's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greenup County.
What Grows in Greenup
Every plant below cleared Greenup's own zone 6b and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Greenup?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 4 — 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.
Documented around Greenup
Survey cells within 31 miles of Greenup checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 94 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Greenup
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Greenup. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Greenup BP & KFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Bulk Plants IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Clarks Pump N Shop No 70Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Super Quik No 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Kendall Electric IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Greenup ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Clarks Pump N Shop #3Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- C28D0025Nitrate · 2500 ft
- Little Sandy Gas & OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Green Hill MicrowaveUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Greenbo Lake MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Formerly JohnsonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Greenup'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 Greenup.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Greenup
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Greenup
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Greenup, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Greenup — PFAS (6 sites) and Superfund (8 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Greenup
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 Greenup average
Your land is one point inside Greenup
Everything above resolves to Greenup as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Greenup Average
Greenup Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Greenup
- ●One soil character for all of Greenup
- ●Frost dates read at Greenup's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Greenup's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Greenup
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Greenup, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Greenup averages can't show:
We read public map data around Greenup — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Greenup average
How we know this about Greenup
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 Greenup’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 Greenup
When does frost risk typically end in Greenup?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Greenup 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 Greenup?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Greenup typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Greenup?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Greenup sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 21, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Greenup?
The federal record around Greenup is a meaningful one — 297 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (180), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Greenup?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Greenup's scale — its 6b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Greenup'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 Greenup’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Greenup's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,348 acres it covers and 297 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Greenup's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Greenup's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 4 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 297 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Greenup, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Greenup's boundary and the 1,348 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Greenup's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Greenup 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 Greenup's 1,348 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greenup County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greenup 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 Greenup County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Greenup's 1,348 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Greenup you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,348 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Greenup-wide figureread your own land →