Nicholasville, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — 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, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Nicholasville, 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 Nicholasville 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 Nicholasville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nicholasville — the short answer
Nicholasville, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 10K 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 Nicholasville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nicholasville's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nicholasville
Each reading below is measured for Nicholasville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNicholasville runs about 224 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
MeasuredNicholasville 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 Nicholasville is in
Nicholasville sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Nicholasville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jessamine County.
What Grows in Nicholasville
Every plant below cleared Nicholasville's own zone 7a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nicholasville?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Nicholasville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Nicholasville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 60 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Nicholasville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nicholasville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T-Mart #529Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Hager Construction Company IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Speedway #9330Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Katies Tire & AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Tire DiscountersUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Lexington Bulk Plant 341Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Curtis PoorUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Murphy Oil USA Inc 6598Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- F21B0048Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- Shelton Shell Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WAL-MART SUPERCENTER #1210Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- East Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nicholasville'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 Nicholasville.
Total Sites
352
within ~10 miles of Nicholasville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nicholasville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nicholasville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nicholasville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Nicholasville — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (258 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Nicholasville
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 Nicholasville average
Your land is one point inside Nicholasville
Everything above resolves to Nicholasville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Nicholasville Average
Nicholasville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Nicholasville
- ●One soil character for all of Nicholasville
- ●Frost dates read at Nicholasville's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nicholasville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nicholasville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nicholasville, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nicholasville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nicholasville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nicholasville average
How we know this about Nicholasville
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 Nicholasville’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 Nicholasville
When does frost risk typically end in Nicholasville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nicholasville typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Nicholasville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nicholasville typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nicholasville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nicholasville sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 25, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nicholasville?
The federal record around Nicholasville is a meaningful one — 352 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (258), 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 Nicholasville?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nicholasville's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nicholasville'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 Nicholasville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Nicholasville's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,734 acres it covers and 352 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nicholasville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nicholasville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 8 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 352 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nicholasville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nicholasville's boundary and the 9,734 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nicholasville's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Nicholasville 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 Nicholasville's 9,734 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jessamine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jessamine 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 Jessamine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nicholasville's 9,734 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nicholasville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,734 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 Nicholasville-wide figureread your own land →