West Louisville, 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 West Louisville, 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 West Louisville 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 West Louisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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West Louisville — the short answer
West Louisville, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 67 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 67 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 West Louisville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Louisville's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Louisville
Each reading below is measured for West Louisville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWest Louisville runs about 233 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
MeasuredWest Louisville 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 West Louisville is in
West Louisville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at West Louisville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Daviess County.
What Grows in West Louisville
Every plant below cleared West Louisville's own zone 7a and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West Louisville?
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 10 — 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 West Louisville
Survey cells within 31 miles of West Louisville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 109 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near West Louisville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Louisville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mary OBryan PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Former West Louisville Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Haydens Drive In IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- JBs Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Great American Convience 5Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Mount Saint JosephUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- G10B0025Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- G10B0026Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- Oberst Grocery/Rubys Market (KatUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- JERRY O'BRYAN HOG FARM - MAIN FARMCAFO · 3.6 mi
- Norman Hayden & Sons IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Calhouns StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West Louisville'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 West Louisville.
Total Sites
259
within ~10 miles of West Louisville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Louisville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Louisville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West Louisville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 161 sites within ~10 miles of West Louisville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 West Louisville
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 West Louisville average
Your land is one point inside West Louisville
Everything above resolves to West Louisville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 67 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 West Louisville Average
West Louisville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across West Louisville
- ●One soil character for all of West Louisville
- ●Frost dates read at West Louisville's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Louisville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Louisville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Louisville, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Louisville averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Louisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Louisville average
How we know this about West Louisville
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 West Louisville’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 West Louisville
When does frost risk typically end in West Louisville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Louisville 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 West Louisville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Louisville typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Louisville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Louisville sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 27, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Louisville?
The federal record around West Louisville is a meaningful one — 259 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (161), 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 West Louisville?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at West Louisville's scale — its 7a band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West Louisville'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 West Louisville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at West Louisville's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 67 acres it covers and 259 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Louisville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- West Louisville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 10 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 259 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Louisville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Louisville's boundary and the 67 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at West Louisville's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around West Louisville 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 West Louisville's 67 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Daviess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Daviess 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 Daviess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among West Louisville's 67 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West Louisville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 67 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 West Louisville-wide figureread your own land →
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