Orchard Grass Hills, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Orchard Grass Hills, 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 Orchard Grass Hills 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 Orchard Grass Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Orchard Grass Hills — the short answer
Orchard Grass Hills, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 248 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- 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
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 248 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 Orchard Grass Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orchard Grass Hills's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orchard Grass Hills
Each reading below is measured for Orchard Grass Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrchard Grass Hills runs about 225 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
MeasuredOrchard Grass Hills 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 Orchard Grass Hills is in
Orchard Grass Hills sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Orchard Grass Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oldham County.
What Grows in Orchard Grass Hills
Every plant below cleared Orchard Grass Hills's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orchard Grass Hills?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Orchard Grass Hills
Survey cells within 31 miles of Orchard Grass Hills checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 43 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Orchard Grass Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orchard Grass Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 1 Stop Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Ernst Concrete Kentucky LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Memory GardensUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Kintec Wood Truss Manufacturing IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Klosterman GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Anchor Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Worthington Fire Department Station 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Jefferson Smurfit CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ABC Distribution LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- GROUND EFFECTS LLCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Evergreen LawnsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CONTAINER CORP OF AMERICA CONTAINER DIVToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orchard Grass Hills'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 Orchard Grass Hills.
Total Sites
720
within ~10 miles of Orchard Grass Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orchard Grass Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orchard Grass Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orchard Grass Hills, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Orchard Grass Hills — Underground Storage Tanks (496 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (46 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Orchard Grass Hills
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 Orchard Grass Hills average
Your land is one point inside Orchard Grass Hills
Everything above resolves to Orchard Grass Hills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 248 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 Orchard Grass Hills Average
Orchard Grass Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Orchard Grass Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Orchard Grass Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Orchard Grass Hills's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orchard Grass Hills's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orchard Grass Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orchard Grass Hills, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orchard Grass Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orchard Grass Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orchard Grass Hills average
How we know this about Orchard Grass Hills
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 Orchard Grass Hills’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 Orchard Grass Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Orchard Grass Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orchard Grass Hills typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Orchard Grass Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orchard Grass Hills 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 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orchard Grass Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orchard Grass Hills sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 25, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orchard Grass Hills?
The federal record around Orchard Grass Hills is a meaningful one — 720 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (496), 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 Orchard Grass Hills?
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 Orchard Grass Hills's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orchard Grass Hills'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 Orchard Grass Hills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Orchard Grass Hills's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 248 acres it covers and 720 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orchard Grass Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orchard Grass Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 8 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 720 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orchard Grass Hills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orchard Grass Hills's boundary and the 248 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Orchard Grass Hills's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Orchard Grass Hills 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 Orchard Grass Hills's 248 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oldham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oldham 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 Oldham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Orchard Grass Hills's 248 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orchard Grass Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 248 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 Orchard Grass Hills-wide figureread your own land →
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