Kevil, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kevil, 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 Kevil 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 Kevil — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kevil — the short answer
Kevil, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 364 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- 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
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 364 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 Kevil's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kevil's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kevil
Each reading below is measured for Kevil itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKevil runs about 235 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
MeasuredKevil 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 Kevil is in
Kevil sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kevil's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ballard County.
What Grows in Kevil
Every plant below cleared Kevil's own zone 7a and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kevil?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Kevil
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kevil. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLYDE ELROD DRUM SITESuperfund · 1900 ft
- Kevil BP Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Indian Hills Trading Post IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Cutmart Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Rices Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Jakes GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FORMER KY ORDNANCE WORKS WIRE BURN AREABrownfields · 1.8 mi
- Marvin E Richter PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- INTERNATIONAL TELE SERVICE, CORPToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- TGC LACENTER M&R STATIONBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- Rodgers GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Former Ashland SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kevil'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 Kevil.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kevil
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kevil
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kevil, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kevil — Superfund (6 sites) and Nitrate (62 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Kevil
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 Kevil average
Your land is one point inside Kevil
Everything above resolves to Kevil as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 364 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 Kevil Average
Kevil Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Kevil
- ●One soil character for all of Kevil
- ●Frost dates read at Kevil's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kevil's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kevil
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kevil, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kevil averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kevil — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kevil average
How we know this about Kevil
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 Kevil’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 Kevil
When does frost risk typically end in Kevil?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kevil typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Kevil?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kevil 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 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kevil?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kevil sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 28, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kevil?
The federal record around Kevil is a meaningful one — 218 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (119), the nearest Superfund 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 Kevil?
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 Kevil's scale — its 7a band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kevil'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 Kevil’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kevil's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 364 acres it covers and 218 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kevil's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kevil's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 11 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 218 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kevil, the closest Superfund record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kevil's boundary and the 364 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kevil'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 Kevil's 364 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ballard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ballard 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 Ballard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kevil's 364 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kevil you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 364 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Kevil-wide figureread your own land →