Hazel, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Hazel, 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 Hazel 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 Hazel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hazel — the short answer
Hazel, Kentucky: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 224 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 224 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 Hazel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hazel's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hazel
Each reading below is measured for Hazel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHazel runs about 236 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
MeasuredHazel 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 Hazel is in
Hazel sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hazel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calloway County.
What Grows in Hazel
Every plant below cleared Hazel's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hazel?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 Hazel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hazel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hazel Convenience MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Hazel City Hall PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- K6D0016Nitrate · 1400 ft
- SHREE Vinayak IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- City Of Hazel PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HY:O-013Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- K6D0010Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- K6D0018Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- K6D0034Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- K6D0005Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- K6D0022Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- K6D0003Nitrate · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hazel'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 Hazel.
Total Sites
311
within ~10 miles of Hazel
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hazel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hazel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hazel, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 156 sites within ~10 miles of Hazel. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hazel
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 Hazel average
Your land is one point inside Hazel
Everything above resolves to Hazel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 224 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 Hazel Average
Hazel Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hazel
- ●One soil character for all of Hazel
- ●Frost dates read at Hazel's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hazel's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hazel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hazel, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hazel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hazel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hazel average
How we know this about Hazel
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 Hazel’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 Hazel
When does frost risk typically end in Hazel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hazel typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Hazel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hazel typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hazel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hazel sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 30, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hazel?
The federal record around Hazel is a meaningful one — 311 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (156), 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 Hazel?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hazel's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hazel'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 Hazel’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hazel's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 224 acres it covers and 311 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hazel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hazel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 13 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 311 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hazel, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hazel's boundary and the 224 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hazel'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 Hazel's 224 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calloway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calloway 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 Calloway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hazel's 224 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hazel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 224 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 Hazel-wide figureread your own land →
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