Mount Washington, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Mount Washington, 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 Mount Washington 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 Mount Washington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Washington — the short answer
Mount Washington, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Mount Washington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Washington's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Washington
Each reading below is measured for Mount Washington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Washington runs about 227 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
MeasuredMount Washington 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 Mount Washington is in
Mount Washington sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Washington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bullitt County.
What Grows in Mount Washington
Every plant below cleared Mount Washington's own zone 7a and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Washington?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Mount Washington
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mount Washington checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 58 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mount Washington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Washington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mtw Truck & Equipment IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SLATE ROCK ENVIRONMENTAL LLCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Pearls Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Precision AutobodyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Express MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Minit Mart No 78Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Namaste Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Newkirk No 6580Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Mount Washington Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Circle K # 3204Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Kroger Fuel L-758Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Minit Mart No 70Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Washington'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 Mount Washington.
Total Sites
310
within ~10 miles of Mount Washington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Washington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Washington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Washington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mount Washington — PFAS (5 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Mount Washington
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 Mount Washington average
Your land is one point inside Mount Washington
Everything above resolves to Mount Washington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Mount Washington Average
Mount Washington Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mount Washington
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Washington
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Washington's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Washington's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Washington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Washington, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Washington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Washington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Washington average
How we know this about Mount Washington
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 Mount Washington’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 Mount Washington
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Washington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Washington typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Mount Washington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Washington typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Washington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Washington sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 26, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Washington?
The federal record around Mount Washington is a meaningful one — 310 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (218), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Mount Washington?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Washington's scale — its 7a band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Washington'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 Mount Washington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mount Washington's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,126 acres it covers and 310 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Washington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Washington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 9 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 310 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Washington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Washington's boundary and the 6,126 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Washington's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mount Washington 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 Mount Washington's 6,126 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bullitt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bullitt 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 Bullitt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Washington's 6,126 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Washington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,126 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Mount Washington-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Wider growing context
What grows across KentuckyMount Washington sits outside our named growing regions, so Kentucky as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides