Hurstbourne, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hurstbourne, 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 Hurstbourne 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 Hurstbourne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hurstbourne — the short answer
Hurstbourne, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- 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 7a is Hurstbourne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hurstbourne's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hurstbourne
Each reading below is measured for Hurstbourne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHurstbourne runs about 232 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
MeasuredHurstbourne 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 Hurstbourne is in
Hurstbourne sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hurstbourne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Hurstbourne
Every plant below cleared Hurstbourne's own zone 7a and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hurstbourne?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Hurstbourne
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hurstbourne checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hurstbourne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hurstbourne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Frazier Rehab CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Avis Rent A Car System LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LOWES HOME CENTER 0474Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- Hurstbourne Green DevelopmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Oxmoor MazdaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Speedway #9554Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Kentucky Farm BureauUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Earl Stich Epp Stich & SonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Speedway #9392Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Former Bluegrass CollisionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Oxmoor HyundaiUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Sears No 1850Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hurstbourne'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 Hurstbourne.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hurstbourne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hurstbourne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hurstbourne, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hurstbourne — Underground Storage Tanks (1,527 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (137 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hurstbourne
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 Hurstbourne average
Your land is one point inside Hurstbourne
Everything above resolves to Hurstbourne 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 Hurstbourne Average
Hurstbourne Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Hurstbourne
- ●One soil character for all of Hurstbourne
- ●Frost dates read at Hurstbourne's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hurstbourne's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hurstbourne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hurstbourne, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hurstbourne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hurstbourne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hurstbourne average
How we know this about Hurstbourne
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 Hurstbourne’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 Hurstbourne
When does frost risk typically end in Hurstbourne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hurstbourne typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Hurstbourne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hurstbourne typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hurstbourne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hurstbourne sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 28, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hurstbourne?
The federal record around Hurstbourne is a meaningful one — 2,070 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,527), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Hurstbourne?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hurstbourne's scale — its 7a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hurstbourne'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 Hurstbourne’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hurstbourne's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,152 acres it covers and 2,070 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hurstbourne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hurstbourne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 11 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,070 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hurstbourne, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hurstbourne's boundary and the 1,152 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hurstbourne's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hurstbourne 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 Hurstbourne's 1,152 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hurstbourne's 1,152 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hurstbourne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,152 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Hurstbourne-wide figureread your own land →