Lebanon, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Lebanon, 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 Lebanon 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 Lebanon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lebanon — the short answer
Lebanon, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Lebanon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lebanon's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lebanon
Each reading below is measured for Lebanon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLebanon runs about 221 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
MeasuredLebanon 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 Lebanon is in
Lebanon sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lebanon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Lebanon
Every plant below cleared Lebanon's own zone 7a and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lebanon?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Lebanon
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lebanon checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 83 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lebanon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lebanon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Langford Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Dairy Mart 3287Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Spring View Hospital Medical OfficesUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- GarrettsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- West Main Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Lassandro Motor CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Lebanon BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Lebanon Five StarUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Old Marion Co - KY Co BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Former Howards TireUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Howards AshlandUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Marion Co Board of Education Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lebanon'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 Lebanon.
Total Sites
144
within ~10 miles of Lebanon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
19 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lebanon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lebanon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lebanon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lebanon — Toxics Release Inventory (19 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (109 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Lebanon
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 Lebanon average
Your land is one point inside Lebanon
Everything above resolves to Lebanon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Lebanon Average
Lebanon Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Lebanon
- ●One soil character for all of Lebanon
- ●Frost dates read at Lebanon's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lebanon's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lebanon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lebanon, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lebanon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lebanon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lebanon average
How we know this about Lebanon
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 Lebanon’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 Lebanon
When does frost risk typically end in Lebanon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lebanon typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Lebanon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lebanon typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lebanon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lebanon sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 23, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lebanon?
The federal record around Lebanon shows 144 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lebanon?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lebanon's scale — its 7a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lebanon'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 Lebanon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lebanon's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,374 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lebanon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lebanon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 6 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lebanon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lebanon's boundary and the 4,374 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lebanon's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lebanon 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 Lebanon's 4,374 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lebanon's 4,374 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lebanon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,374 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 Lebanon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Wider growing context
What grows across KentuckyLebanon sits outside our named growing regions, so Kentucky as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides