Watterson Park, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Watterson Park, 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 Watterson Park 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 Watterson Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Watterson Park — the short answer
Watterson Park, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 922 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 922 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 Watterson Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Watterson Park's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Watterson Park
Each reading below is measured for Watterson Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWatterson Park runs about 245 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
MeasuredWatterson Park 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 Watterson Park is in
Watterson Park sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Watterson Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Watterson Park
Every plant below cleared Watterson Park's own zone 7a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Watterson Park?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Watterson Park
Survey cells within 31 miles of Watterson Park checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 55 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Watterson Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Watterson Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- M & M Cartage Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- J J Carter & Son Moving & StorageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Axton Candy & Tobacco CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KY Associates of Electric Cooperatives IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Omnicare of LouisvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LOUISVILLE ARMORYBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Fedex Odf StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Masters SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Raymond Equip Co CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Anheuser Busch PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Fishel CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- KENTUCKY ASSOCIATION OF ELECTRIC COOP INCToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Watterson Park'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 Watterson Park.
Total Sites
3,022
within ~10 miles of Watterson Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
33 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Watterson Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Watterson Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Watterson Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Watterson Park — Toxics Release Inventory (226 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (2,092 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Watterson Park
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 Watterson Park average
Your land is one point inside Watterson Park
Everything above resolves to Watterson Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 922 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 Watterson Park Average
Watterson Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Watterson Park
- ●One soil character for all of Watterson Park
- ●Frost dates read at Watterson Park's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Watterson Park's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Watterson Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Watterson Park, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Watterson Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Watterson Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Watterson Park average
How we know this about Watterson Park
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 Watterson Park’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 Watterson Park
When does frost risk typically end in Watterson Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Watterson Park typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Watterson Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Watterson Park typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Watterson Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Watterson Park sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 5, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Watterson Park?
The federal record around Watterson Park is a meaningful one — 3,022 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,092), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Watterson Park?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Watterson Park's scale — its 7a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Watterson Park'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 Watterson Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Watterson Park's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 922 acres it covers and 3,022 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Watterson Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Watterson Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 19 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,022 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Watterson Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Watterson Park's boundary and the 922 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Watterson Park's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Watterson Park 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 Watterson Park's 922 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Watterson Park's 922 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Watterson Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 922 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Watterson Park-wide figureread your own land →