Wickliffe, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wickliffe, 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 Wickliffe 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 Wickliffe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wickliffe — the short answer
Wickliffe, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 993 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 993 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 Wickliffe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wickliffe's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wickliffe
Each reading below is measured for Wickliffe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWickliffe runs about 242 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
MeasuredWickliffe 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 Wickliffe is in
Wickliffe sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wickliffe's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ballard County.
What Grows in Wickliffe
Every plant below cleared Wickliffe's own zone 7a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wickliffe?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Wickliffe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wickliffe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Peedees Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WESTVACO CORPORATIONSuperfund · 2000 ft
- Geveden & Geveden Law OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Wickliffe MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Cutmart Mart 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- J3B0080Nitrate · 2400 ft
- J3B0079Nitrate · 2500 ft
- Wickliffe AshlandUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Cigarettes for Less IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Indian Hills IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Indian Hills Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- J3B0072Nitrate · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wickliffe'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 Wickliffe.
Total Sites
216
within ~10 miles of Wickliffe
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wickliffe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wickliffe
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wickliffe, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wickliffe — Nitrate (96 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Wickliffe
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 Wickliffe average
Your land is one point inside Wickliffe
Everything above resolves to Wickliffe as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 993 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 Wickliffe Average
Wickliffe Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Wickliffe
- ●One soil character for all of Wickliffe
- ●Frost dates read at Wickliffe's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wickliffe's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wickliffe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wickliffe, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wickliffe averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wickliffe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wickliffe average
How we know this about Wickliffe
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 Wickliffe’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 Wickliffe
When does frost risk typically end in Wickliffe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wickliffe typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Wickliffe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wickliffe typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wickliffe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wickliffe sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 3, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wickliffe?
The federal record around Wickliffe is a meaningful one — 216 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (96), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Wickliffe?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wickliffe's scale — its 7a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wickliffe'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 Wickliffe’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wickliffe's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 993 acres it covers and 216 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wickliffe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wickliffe's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 17 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 216 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wickliffe, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wickliffe's boundary and the 993 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wickliffe's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wickliffe's 993 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ballard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ballard 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 Ballard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wickliffe's 993 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wickliffe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 993 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Wickliffe-wide figureread your own land →