Plum Springs, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Plum Springs, 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 Plum Springs 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 Plum Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Plum Springs — the short answer
Plum Springs, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 340 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 340 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 Plum Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Plum Springs's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Plum Springs
Each reading below is measured for Plum Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPlum Springs runs about 223 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
MeasuredPlum Springs 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 Plum Springs is in
Plum Springs sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Plum Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Warren County.
What Grows in Plum Springs
Every plant below cleared Plum Springs's own zone 7a and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Plum Springs?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 6 — 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.
Documented around Plum Springs
Survey cells within 31 miles of Plum Springs checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 56 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Plum Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Plum Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JR Food Store 837Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Southern Kentucky Maintenance dba Southern Environmental ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SOUTHERN KENTUCKY MAINTENANCE DBA SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- DAYTON FREIGHT LINES - BGRBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Smith Trucking TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation - Buck Jenkins Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PST Vans IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ComFuel B-7Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Warren Co Water DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Roadway Express IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TRACE DIE CAST INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- WOODWORK OF MID-AMERICAToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Plum Springs'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 Plum Springs.
Total Sites
491
within ~10 miles of Plum Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Plum Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Plum Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Plum Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Plum Springs — Toxics Release Inventory (60 sites) and Superfund (7 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Plum Springs
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 Plum Springs average
Your land is one point inside Plum Springs
Everything above resolves to Plum Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 340 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 Plum Springs Average
Plum Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Plum Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Plum Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Plum Springs's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Plum Springs's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Plum Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Plum Springs, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Plum Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Plum Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Plum Springs average
How we know this about Plum Springs
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 Plum Springs’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 Plum Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Plum Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Plum Springs 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 Plum Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Plum Springs 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 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Plum Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Plum Springs sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 23, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Plum Springs?
The federal record around Plum Springs is a meaningful one — 491 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (333), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Plum Springs?
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 Plum Springs's scale — its 7a band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Plum Springs'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 Plum Springs’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Plum Springs's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 340 acres it covers and 491 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Plum Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Plum Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 6 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 491 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Plum Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Plum Springs's boundary and the 340 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Plum Springs's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Plum Springs 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 Plum Springs's 340 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warren 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 Warren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Plum Springs's 340 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Plum Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 340 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Plum Springs-wide figureread your own land →