Jeffersontown, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Jeffersontown, 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 Jeffersontown 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 Jeffersontown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Jeffersontown — the short answer
Jeffersontown, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 7K 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
- 7K 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 Jeffersontown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jeffersontown's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jeffersontown
Each reading below is measured for Jeffersontown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJeffersontown 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
MeasuredJeffersontown 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 Jeffersontown is in
Jeffersontown sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jeffersontown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Jeffersontown
Every plant below cleared Jeffersontown'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 Jeffersontown?
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 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. 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 Jeffersontown
Survey cells within 31 miles of Jeffersontown checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 50 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Jeffersontown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jeffersontown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kentuckiana Curb CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- The Kroger CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- A L Pickens Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Tkr CableUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Clarke G M Diesel IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Neil Huffman VW SubaruUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- UNIVERSAL WOODS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- Valvoline Instant Oil ChangeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Bobs Service Center Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Barmore Development & Construction CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Jones Plastic & Engineering CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Builders Plumbing SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jeffersontown'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 Jeffersontown.
Total Sites
1,526
within ~10 miles of Jeffersontown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jeffersontown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jeffersontown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jeffersontown, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,153 sites within ~10 miles of Jeffersontown. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Jeffersontown
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 Jeffersontown average
Your land is one point inside Jeffersontown
Everything above resolves to Jeffersontown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Jeffersontown Average
Jeffersontown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Jeffersontown
- ●One soil character for all of Jeffersontown
- ●Frost dates read at Jeffersontown's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jeffersontown's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jeffersontown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jeffersontown, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jeffersontown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jeffersontown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jeffersontown average
How we know this about Jeffersontown
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 Jeffersontown’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 Jeffersontown
When does frost risk typically end in Jeffersontown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jeffersontown 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 Jeffersontown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jeffersontown 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 Jeffersontown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jeffersontown 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 Jeffersontown?
The federal record around Jeffersontown is a meaningful one — 1,526 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,153), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Jeffersontown?
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 Jeffersontown's scale — its 7a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jeffersontown'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 Jeffersontown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Jeffersontown's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,824 acres it covers and 1,526 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jeffersontown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jeffersontown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 11 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,526 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jeffersontown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jeffersontown's boundary and the 6,824 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 Jeffersontown's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Jeffersontown 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 Jeffersontown's 6,824 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 Jeffersontown's 6,824 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jeffersontown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,824 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Jeffersontown-wide figureread your own land →