Harrodsburg, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Harrodsburg, 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 Harrodsburg 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 Harrodsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Harrodsburg — the short answer
Harrodsburg, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Harrodsburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harrodsburg's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Harrodsburg
Each reading below is measured for Harrodsburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHarrodsburg runs about 227 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
MeasuredHarrodsburg 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 Harrodsburg is in
Harrodsburg sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Harrodsburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mercer County.
What Grows in Harrodsburg
Every plant below cleared Harrodsburg's own zone 7a and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Harrodsburg?
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 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 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Harrodsburg
Survey cells within 31 miles of Harrodsburg checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 67 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Harrodsburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Harrodsburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HALLMACK, DIVISION OF NUTONE, INC.Brownfields · 350 ft
- Mercer Co State Maintenance Garage #251Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Harrodsburg Public Works Salt BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- City BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Greens Five PointUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Antique MallUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Minit Mart #516Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Hayslett PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Value MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Adams College StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Schever Property (Former Hilltop Shell)Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Dairymen IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Harrodsburg'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 Harrodsburg.
Total Sites
213
within ~10 miles of Harrodsburg
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Harrodsburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Harrodsburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Harrodsburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Harrodsburg — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (163 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Harrodsburg
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 Harrodsburg average
Your land is one point inside Harrodsburg
Everything above resolves to Harrodsburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Harrodsburg Average
Harrodsburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Harrodsburg
- ●One soil character for all of Harrodsburg
- ●Frost dates read at Harrodsburg's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harrodsburg's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Harrodsburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harrodsburg, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harrodsburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harrodsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harrodsburg average
How we know this about Harrodsburg
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 Harrodsburg’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 Harrodsburg
When does frost risk typically end in Harrodsburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harrodsburg 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 Harrodsburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Harrodsburg 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 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Harrodsburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harrodsburg sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 27, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Harrodsburg?
The federal record around Harrodsburg is a meaningful one — 213 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (163), the nearest Brownfields 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 Harrodsburg?
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 Harrodsburg's scale — its 7a band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harrodsburg'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 Harrodsburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Harrodsburg's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,429 acres it covers and 213 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harrodsburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Harrodsburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 10 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 213 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Harrodsburg, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Harrodsburg's boundary and the 4,429 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Harrodsburg's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Harrodsburg 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 Harrodsburg's 4,429 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Harrodsburg's 4,429 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Harrodsburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,429 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Harrodsburg-wide figureread your own land →
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