Mays Lick, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Mays Lick, 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 Mays Lick 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 Mays Lick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mays Lick — the short answer
Mays Lick, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 408 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 408 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 6b is Mays Lick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mays Lick's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mays Lick
Each reading below is measured for Mays Lick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMays Lick runs about 223 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
MeasuredMays Lick sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Mays Lick is in
Mays Lick sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mays Lick's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mason County.
What Grows in Mays Lick
Every plant below cleared Mays Lick's own zone 6b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mays Lick?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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.
Documented around Mays Lick
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mays Lick checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 52 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mays Lick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mays Lick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- The Reese BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Collins EstateUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RAN Minimart IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Mays Lick Ashland StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Gasoline Alley #9Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Mays Lick MillUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Slip Up GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Old Lowes GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Shamrock Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Jollys S SUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Arnold Distributing CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Manley Auto SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mays Lick'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 Mays Lick.
Total Sites
177
within ~10 miles of Mays Lick
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mays Lick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mays Lick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mays Lick, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mays Lick — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (145 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Mays Lick
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 Mays Lick average
Your land is one point inside Mays Lick
Everything above resolves to Mays Lick as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 408 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 town 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 Mays Lick Average
Mays Lick Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Mays Lick
- ●One soil character for all of Mays Lick
- ●Frost dates read at Mays Lick's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mays Lick's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mays Lick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mays Lick, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mays Lick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mays Lick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mays Lick average
How we know this about Mays Lick
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Mays Lick’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Mays Lick
When does frost risk typically end in Mays Lick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mays Lick typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Mays Lick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mays Lick typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mays Lick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mays Lick sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 27, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mays Lick?
The federal record around Mays Lick is a meaningful one — 177 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (145), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Mays Lick?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mays Lick's scale — its 6b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mays Lick'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 Mays Lick’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mays Lick's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 408 acres it covers and 177 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mays Lick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mays Lick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 10 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 177 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mays Lick, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mays Lick's boundary and the 408 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mays Lick's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mays Lick 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 Mays Lick's 408 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mason County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mason 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 Mason County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mays Lick's 408 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mays Lick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 408 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Mays Lick-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Growing region
Nearby growing guides