Sandy Hook, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sandy Hook, 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 Sandy Hook 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 Sandy Hook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sandy Hook — the short answer
Sandy Hook, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 628 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 628 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 Sandy Hook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sandy Hook's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sandy Hook
Each reading below is measured for Sandy Hook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSandy Hook runs about 199 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSandy Hook 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 Sandy Hook is in
Sandy Hook sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sandy Hook's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elliott County.
What Grows in Sandy Hook
Every plant below cleared Sandy Hook's own zone 6b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sandy Hook?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Sandy Hook
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sandy Hook checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 101 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sandy Hook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sandy Hook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STP BRZ 032 1206 C00032NBrownfields · 750 ft
- Harpos Country CabinUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Fast Lane No 12Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Wheeler & FaulknerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Three Warne Pennies LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Atkins GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Johnsons GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Sandy Hook ElementaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Littletons FurnitureUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Ashland StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Flannery GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Ashland Branded Marketing 266 081 0232Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sandy Hook'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 Sandy Hook.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sandy Hook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sandy Hook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sandy Hook, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 57 sites within ~10 miles of Sandy Hook. 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.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sandy Hook
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 Sandy Hook average
Your land is one point inside Sandy Hook
Everything above resolves to Sandy Hook as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 628 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 Sandy Hook Average
Sandy Hook Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Sandy Hook
- ●One soil character for all of Sandy Hook
- ●Frost dates read at Sandy Hook's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sandy Hook's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sandy Hook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sandy Hook, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sandy Hook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sandy Hook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sandy Hook average
How we know this about Sandy Hook
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 Sandy Hook’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 Sandy Hook
When does frost risk typically end in Sandy Hook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sandy Hook typically lands around Apr 11, 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 May 2.
When is the first frost in Sandy Hook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sandy Hook typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sandy Hook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sandy Hook sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 13, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sandy Hook?
The federal record around Sandy Hook shows 73 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Sandy Hook?
From about Sep 27 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 Oct 27 (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 Oct 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sandy Hook's scale — its 6b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sandy Hook'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 Sandy Hook’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sandy Hook's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 628 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sandy Hook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sandy Hook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 27 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sandy Hook, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sandy Hook's boundary and the 628 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sandy Hook's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sandy Hook 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 Sandy Hook's 628 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elliott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elliott 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 Elliott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sandy Hook's 628 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sandy Hook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 628 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Sandy Hook-wide figureread your own land →
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