Paris, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Paris, 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 Paris 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 Paris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paris — the short answer
Paris, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 6b is Paris's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paris's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paris
Each reading below is measured for Paris itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredParis runs about 220 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
MeasuredParis sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Paris is in
Paris sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paris's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bourbon County.
What Grows in Paris
Every plant below cleared Paris's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paris?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Paris
Survey cells within 31 miles of Paris checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 48 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Paris
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paris. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dan Cummins Chevrolet Buick Pontiac OldsmobileUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Murphy USA #7414Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Kidde Industries - WeaverUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DJ Legacy IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WAL-MART SUPERCENTER #493Brownfields · 1400 ft
- Mastins Chevron ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Paris Chevron (Kerrs)Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Stewart PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Carrier Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Easy Gardener Products IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Former Bourbon Co State Maintenance GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Central Kentucky Quick Lube & TireUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paris'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 Paris.
Total Sites
141
within ~10 miles of Paris
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paris
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paris
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paris, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Paris — Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (88 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Paris
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 Paris average
Your land is one point inside Paris
Everything above resolves to Paris as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Paris Average
Paris Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Paris
- ●One soil character for all of Paris
- ●Frost dates read at Paris's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paris's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paris
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paris, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paris averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paris average
How we know this about Paris
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 Paris’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 Paris
When does frost risk typically end in Paris?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paris typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Paris?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paris typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paris?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paris sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 23, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paris?
The federal record around Paris is a meaningful one — 141 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (88), 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 Paris?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paris's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paris'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 Paris’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Paris's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,086 acres it covers and 141 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paris's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paris's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 6 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 141 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paris, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paris's boundary and the 5,086 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paris's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Paris 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 Paris's 5,086 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bourbon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bourbon 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 Bourbon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paris's 5,086 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paris you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,086 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 Paris-wide figureread your own land →
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