Independence, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Independence, 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 Independence 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 Independence — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Independence — the short answer
Independence, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- 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
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 11K 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 Independence's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Independence's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Independence
Each reading below is measured for Independence itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIndependence runs about 225 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
MeasuredIndependence 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 Independence is in
Independence sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Independence's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kenton County.
What Grows in Independence
Every plant below cleared Independence's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Independence?
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 Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Independence
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Independence, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Independence
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Independence. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Gary Ross ChestnutUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Independence BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Kwik TripUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Harneys Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Bavarian Trucking Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Kenton Co Public Works DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BAVARIAN TRUCKING COToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- Independence Public UtilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Judes Custom Exhaust & Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Kenton Co Police DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Northern Kentucky Water DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- WESTERN FLEMING WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Independence'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 Independence.
Total Sites
1,024
within ~10 miles of Independence
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Independence
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Independence
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Independence, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Independence — Toxics Release Inventory (94 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (681 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Independence
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 Independence average
Your land is one point inside Independence
Everything above resolves to Independence as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Independence Average
Independence Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Independence
- ●One soil character for all of Independence
- ●Frost dates read at Independence's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Independence's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Independence
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Independence, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Independence averages can't show:
We read public map data around Independence — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Independence average
How we know this about Independence
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 Independence’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 Independence
When does frost risk typically end in Independence?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Independence typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Independence?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Independence 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 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Independence?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Independence sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 28, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Independence?
The federal record around Independence is a meaningful one — 1,024 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (681), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Independence?
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 Independence's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Independence'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 Independence’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Independence's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,353 acres it covers and 1,024 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Independence's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Independence's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 11 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,024 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Independence, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Independence's boundary and the 11,353 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Independence's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Independencelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Independence's 11,353 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kenton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kenton 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 Kenton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Independence's 11,353 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Independence you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,353 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Independence-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Growing region
Nearby growing guides