Smiths Grove, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Smiths Grove, 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 Smiths Grove 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 Smiths Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Smiths Grove — the short answer
Smiths Grove, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 499 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
- 499 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 Smiths Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Smiths Grove's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Smiths Grove
Each reading below is measured for Smiths Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSmiths Grove 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
MeasuredSmiths Grove 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 Smiths Grove is in
Smiths Grove sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Smiths Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Warren County.
What Grows in Smiths Grove
Every plant below cleared Smiths Grove'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 Smiths Grove?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Smiths Grove
Survey cells within 31 miles of Smiths Grove checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 59 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Smiths Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Smiths Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ethan Enterprises Inc PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Barrick & Son (Smith Grove Gulf)Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Johns TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Uss AgrichemUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Crossroads IGA #770Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Smiths Grove ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Bryce Motel & RestaurantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Flav O Rich IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Smiths Grove Travel CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Plowmans Inc Smiths Grove KeysUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- North Warren Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Chalybeate CornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Smiths Grove'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 Smiths Grove.
Total Sites
139
within ~10 miles of Smiths Grove
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
19 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Smiths Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Smiths Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Smiths Grove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Smiths Grove — Toxics Release Inventory (19 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (86 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 Smiths Grove
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 Smiths Grove average
Your land is one point inside Smiths Grove
Everything above resolves to Smiths Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 499 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 Smiths Grove Average
Smiths Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Smiths Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Smiths Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Smiths Grove's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Smiths Grove's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Smiths Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Smiths Grove, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Smiths Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Smiths Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smiths Grove average
How we know this about Smiths Grove
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 Smiths Grove’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 Smiths Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Smiths Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Smiths Grove 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 Smiths Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Smiths Grove 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 Smiths Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Smiths Grove 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 Smiths Grove?
The federal record around Smiths Grove shows 139 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Smiths Grove?
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 Smiths Grove's scale — its 7a band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Smiths Grove'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 Smiths Grove’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Smiths Grove's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 499 acres it covers and 139 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Smiths Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Smiths Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 6 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Smiths Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Smiths Grove's boundary and the 499 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 Smiths Grove's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Smiths Grove 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 Smiths Grove's 499 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 Smiths Grove's 499 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Smiths Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 499 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Smiths Grove-wide figureread your own land →