Murray, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Murray, 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 Murray 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 Murray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Murray — the short answer
Murray, Kentucky: USDA zone 7b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 7b is Murray's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Murray's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Murray
Each reading below is measured for Murray itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMurray runs about 235 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
MeasuredMurray sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Murray is in
Murray sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Murray's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calloway County.
What Grows in Murray
Every plant below cleared Murray's own zone 7b and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Murray?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Murray
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Murray. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MSU Price Doyle Fine Arts CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 5 Points Auto SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MURRAY STATE UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Murray State UniversityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FiveStar #6925Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Murray BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Trash & TreasuresUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Master TireUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- B & L AutomotiveUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Larry Seay Auto SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Kwik Stop 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Geurin ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Murray'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 Murray.
Total Sites
392
within ~10 miles of Murray
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Murray
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Murray
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Murray, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 220 sites within ~10 miles of Murray. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Murray
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 Murray average
Your land is one point inside Murray
Everything above resolves to Murray as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Murray Average
Murray Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Murray
- ●One soil character for all of Murray
- ●Frost dates read at Murray's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Murray's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Murray
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Murray, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Murray averages can't show:
We read public map data around Murray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Murray average
How we know this about Murray
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 Murray’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 Murray
When does frost risk typically end in Murray?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Murray typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Murray?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Murray typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Murray?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Murray sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 29, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Murray?
The federal record around Murray is a meaningful one — 392 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (220), 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 Murray?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Murray's scale — its 7b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Murray'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 Murray’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Murray's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,484 acres it covers and 392 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Murray's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Murray's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 12 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 392 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Murray, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Murray's boundary and the 7,484 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Murray's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Murray's 7,484 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calloway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calloway 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 Calloway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Murray's 7,484 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Murray you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,484 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 Murray-wide figureread your own land →
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