Vanceburg, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Vanceburg, 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 Vanceburg 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 Vanceburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vanceburg — the short answer
Vanceburg, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 927 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 927 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 Vanceburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vanceburg's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vanceburg
Each reading below is measured for Vanceburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVanceburg runs about 212 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
MeasuredVanceburg 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 Vanceburg is in
Vanceburg sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vanceburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lewis County.
What Grows in Vanceburg
Every plant below cleared Vanceburg's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vanceburg?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Vanceburg
Survey cells within 31 miles of Vanceburg checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 71 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Vanceburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vanceburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Vanceburg FoodmartUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Delmas StoneUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Ashland Branded Marketing 558 0255360 0050Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- George Stone MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Shumate Grocery No 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Ashland BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Vanceburg Electric Plant BoardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Bee Mart ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Bulk Plant Inc Vanceburg No 58Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Super Quik IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Chevron 0049668Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Clarks Pump N Shop 68Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vanceburg'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 Vanceburg.
Total Sites
76
within ~10 miles of Vanceburg
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vanceburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vanceburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vanceburg, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 53 sites within ~10 miles of Vanceburg. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Vanceburg
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 Vanceburg average
Your land is one point inside Vanceburg
Everything above resolves to Vanceburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 927 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 Vanceburg Average
Vanceburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Vanceburg
- ●One soil character for all of Vanceburg
- ●Frost dates read at Vanceburg's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vanceburg's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vanceburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vanceburg, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vanceburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vanceburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vanceburg average
How we know this about Vanceburg
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 Vanceburg’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 Vanceburg
When does frost risk typically end in Vanceburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vanceburg typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Vanceburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vanceburg typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vanceburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vanceburg sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 20, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vanceburg?
The federal record around Vanceburg shows 76 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), 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 Vanceburg?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vanceburg's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vanceburg'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 Vanceburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Vanceburg's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 927 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vanceburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vanceburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 3 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vanceburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vanceburg's boundary and the 927 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vanceburg's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Vanceburg 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 Vanceburg's 927 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lewis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lewis 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 Lewis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vanceburg's 927 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vanceburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 927 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 Vanceburg-wide figureread your own land →