Northfield, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Northfield, 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 Northfield 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 Northfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Northfield — the short answer
Northfield, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 301 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 301 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 Northfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Northfield's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Northfield
Each reading below is measured for Northfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorthfield 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
MeasuredNorthfield 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 Northfield is in
Northfield sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Northfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Northfield
Every plant below cleared Northfield's own zone 7a and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Northfield?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 Northfield
Survey cells within 31 miles of Northfield checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Northfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Northfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kroger Fuel L-186Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BP # 36284Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Thorntons Inc #158Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- KROGER #186-24Brownfields · 1900 ft
- Dairy Mart No 710Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CVSBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Thornton Oil 55Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Clans Service Station IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ISOGRIP 5040 D SPILLSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- Zackary Taylor Natl Cemetery 883Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Jefferson Co Recycling Center No 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT CORPBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Northfield'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 Northfield.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Northfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Northfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Northfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Northfield — Toxics Release Inventory (182 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (1,753 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Northfield
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 Northfield average
Your land is one point inside Northfield
Everything above resolves to Northfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 301 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 Northfield Average
Northfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Northfield
- ●One soil character for all of Northfield
- ●Frost dates read at Northfield's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Northfield's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Northfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Northfield, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Northfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Northfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Northfield average
How we know this about Northfield
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 Northfield’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 Northfield
When does frost risk typically end in Northfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Northfield typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Northfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Northfield typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Northfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Northfield sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 30, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Northfield?
The federal record around Northfield is a meaningful one — 2,503 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,753), 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 Northfield?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Northfield's scale — its 7a band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Northfield'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 Northfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Northfield's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 301 acres it covers and 2,503 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Northfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Northfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 13 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,503 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Northfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Northfield's boundary and the 301 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Northfield's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Northfield 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 Northfield's 301 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Northfield's 301 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Northfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 301 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 Northfield-wide figureread your own land →