Spottsville, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Spottsville, 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 Spottsville 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 Spottsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Spottsville — the short answer
Spottsville, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 301 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 301 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 Spottsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spottsville's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spottsville
Each reading below is measured for Spottsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpottsville runs about 235 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
MeasuredSpottsville 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 Spottsville is in
Spottsville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spottsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henderson County.
What Grows in Spottsville
Every plant below cleared Spottsville's own zone 7a and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spottsville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Spottsville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Spottsville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 122 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Spottsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spottsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Green River MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Grannys MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Green River Lock & Dam No 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Hill Top InnUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Spottsville Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Cageys General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Darrell Darnell PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Galloway FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- James P EscheUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Spottsville Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Service Sta 16 D Bp 301Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Calton Wilkerson PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spottsville'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 Spottsville.
Total Sites
518
within ~10 miles of Spottsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spottsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spottsville
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Spottsville
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 Spottsville average
Your land is one point inside Spottsville
Everything above resolves to Spottsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 301 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 Spottsville Average
Spottsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Spottsville
- ●One soil character for all of Spottsville
- ●Frost dates read at Spottsville's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spottsville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spottsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spottsville, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spottsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spottsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spottsville average
How we know this about Spottsville
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 Spottsville’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 Spottsville
When does frost risk typically end in Spottsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spottsville typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Spottsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spottsville typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spottsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spottsville sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 29, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spottsville?
The federal record around Spottsville is a meaningful one — 518 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (280), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Spottsville?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spottsville's scale — its 7a band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spottsville'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 Spottsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Spottsville's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 301 acres it covers and 518 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spottsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spottsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 12 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 518 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spottsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spottsville's boundary and the 301 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spottsville's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Spottsville 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 Spottsville's 301 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henderson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henderson 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 Henderson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spottsville's 301 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spottsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 301 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Spottsville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Growing region
Nearby growing guides