Poole, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Poole, 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 Poole 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 Poole — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Poole — the short answer
Poole, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 621 acres of town.
- 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 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 621 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 Poole's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Poole's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Poole
Each reading below is measured for Poole itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPoole runs about 233 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
MeasuredPoole 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 Poole is in
Poole sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Poole's own centroid rather than borrowed from Webster County.
What Grows in Poole
Every plant below cleared Poole's own zone 7a and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Poole?
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 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 11 — 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 Poole
Survey cells within 31 miles of Poole checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 114 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Poole
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Poole. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Poole Special Education CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Pramukh Property IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Moons Kwik StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- G9A0050Nitrate · 1800 ft
- Linger Longer SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Floyd Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- TEXAS GAS TRANSMISSION LLC - MIDLAND III TRANSMISSIONBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- Dyer PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Phillips GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Williams Grocery At CairoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Busbys Body ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- Vacant LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Poole'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 Poole.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Poole
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Poole
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Poole
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Poole, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Poole. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Poole
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 Poole average
Your land is one point inside Poole
Everything above resolves to Poole as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 621 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 town 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 Poole Average
Poole Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Poole
- ●One soil character for all of Poole
- ●Frost dates read at Poole's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Poole's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Poole
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Poole, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Poole averages can't show:
We read public map data around Poole — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Poole average
How we know this about Poole
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Poole’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Poole
When does frost risk typically end in Poole?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Poole 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 Poole?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Poole typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Poole?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Poole sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 28, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Poole?
The federal record around Poole shows 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Poole?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Poole's scale — its 7a band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Poole'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 Poole’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Poole's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 621 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Poole's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Poole's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 11 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Poole, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Poole's boundary and the 621 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Poole's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Poole 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 Poole's 621 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Webster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Webster 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 Webster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Poole's 621 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Poole you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 621 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 Poole-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Wider growing context
What grows across KentuckyPoole sits outside our named growing regions, so Kentucky as a whole is its closest context here.