Lynch, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lynch, 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 Lynch 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 Lynch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lynch — the short answer
Lynch, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 191 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 191 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 Lynch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lynch's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lynch
Each reading below is measured for Lynch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLynch runs about 214 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
MeasuredLynch 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 Lynch is in
Lynch sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lynch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Harlan County.
What Grows in Lynch
Every plant below cleared Lynch's own zone 7a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lynch?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Lynch
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lynch checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 46 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lynch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lynch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Arch Of KentuckyUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Lynch Arsr QriUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- City of LynchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ARH CUMBERLAND VALLEY PRIMARY CARE CTR.Brownfields · 1500 ft
- Black Mountain ExchangeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Mine Site 35Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Benham Coal Inc Prep PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- BENHAM WATER PLANTPFAS · 2.3 mi
- Joy Food Store Inc No 848Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Rasnick Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Bob & Bettys GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- National City Bank Of KentuckyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lynch'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 Lynch.
Total Sites
137
within ~10 miles of Lynch
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lynch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lynch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lynch, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lynch — Nitrate (44 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (86 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lynch
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 Lynch average
Your land is one point inside Lynch
Everything above resolves to Lynch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 191 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 Lynch Average
Lynch Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Lynch
- ●One soil character for all of Lynch
- ●Frost dates read at Lynch's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lynch's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lynch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lynch, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lynch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lynch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lynch average
How we know this about Lynch
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 Lynch’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 Lynch
When does frost risk typically end in Lynch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lynch typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Lynch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lynch typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lynch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lynch sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 21, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lynch?
The federal record around Lynch is a meaningful one — 137 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lynch?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lynch's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lynch'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 Lynch’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lynch's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 191 acres it covers and 137 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lynch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lynch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 4 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 137 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lynch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lynch's boundary and the 191 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lynch's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lynch 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 Lynch's 191 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harlan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harlan 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 Harlan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lynch's 191 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lynch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 191 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 Lynch-wide figureread your own land →
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