Radcliff, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Radcliff, 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 Radcliff 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 Radcliff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Radcliff — the short answer
Radcliff, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- 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
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Radcliff's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Radcliff's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Radcliff
Each reading below is measured for Radcliff itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRadcliff runs about 222 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
MeasuredRadcliff 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 Radcliff is in
Radcliff sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Radcliff's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hardin County.
What Grows in Radcliff
Every plant below cleared Radcliff's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Radcliff?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Radcliff
Survey cells within 31 miles of Radcliff checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 83 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Radcliff
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Radcliff. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IMI South LLC - Radcliff 872Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JACK HART'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- The Oil Changer IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Family Dollar #9047Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Jr Food Store No 842Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Bulk #6360Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Chevron Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- North Hardin High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Speedway #9657Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Five Star #8718Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Janes Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Radcliff Chevron No 8716Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Radcliff'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 Radcliff.
Total Sites
321
within ~10 miles of Radcliff
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Radcliff
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Radcliff
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Radcliff, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Radcliff — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (22 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Radcliff
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 Radcliff average
Your land is one point inside Radcliff
Everything above resolves to Radcliff as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Radcliff Average
Radcliff Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Radcliff
- ●One soil character for all of Radcliff
- ●Frost dates read at Radcliff's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Radcliff's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Radcliff
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Radcliff, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Radcliff averages can't show:
We read public map data around Radcliff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Radcliff average
How we know this about Radcliff
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 Radcliff’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 Radcliff
When does frost risk typically end in Radcliff?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Radcliff typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Radcliff?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Radcliff 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 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Radcliff?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Radcliff sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 23, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Radcliff?
The federal record around Radcliff is a meaningful one — 321 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (205), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Radcliff?
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 Radcliff's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Radcliff'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 Radcliff’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Radcliff's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,561 acres it covers and 321 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Radcliff's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Radcliff's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 6 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 321 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Radcliff, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Radcliff's boundary and the 8,561 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Radcliff's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Radcliff 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 Radcliff's 8,561 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hardin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hardin 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 Hardin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Radcliff's 8,561 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Radcliff you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,561 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Radcliff-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Wider growing context
What grows across KentuckyRadcliff sits outside our named growing regions, so Kentucky as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides