Martin, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Martin, 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 Martin 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 Martin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Martin — the short answer
Martin, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 468 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 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 468 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 Martin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Martin's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Martin
Each reading below is measured for Martin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMartin runs about 222 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
MeasuredMartin 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 Martin is in
Martin sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Martin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Floyd County.
What Grows in Martin
Every plant below cleared Martin's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Martin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 7 — 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 Martin
Survey cells within 31 miles of Martin checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 74 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Martin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Martin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Jacobs TowingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Earitt HayesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Martin Western AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Ann O Scutchfield EstateUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Speedway #9588Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Halbert Bros GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Martin AshlandUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- United Kentucky Coal Mine SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Martin Double KwikUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Canary CottageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Floyd Co Board of Education Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Martin BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Martin'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 Martin.
Total Sites
212
within ~10 miles of Martin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Martin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Martin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Martin, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 192 sites within ~10 miles of Martin. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Martin
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 Martin average
Your land is one point inside Martin
Everything above resolves to Martin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 468 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 Martin Average
Martin Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Martin
- ●One soil character for all of Martin
- ●Frost dates read at Martin's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Martin's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Martin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Martin, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Martin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Martin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Martin average
How we know this about Martin
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 Martin’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 Martin
When does frost risk typically end in Martin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Martin 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 Martin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Martin typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Martin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Martin sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 24, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Martin?
The federal record around Martin is a meaningful one — 212 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (192), 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 Martin?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Martin's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Martin'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 Martin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Martin's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 468 acres it covers and 212 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Martin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Martin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 7 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 212 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Martin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Martin's boundary and the 468 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Martin's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Martin 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 Martin's 468 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Floyd County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Floyd 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 Floyd County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Martin's 468 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Martin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 468 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 Martin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Growing region
Nearby growing guides