Ansted, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ansted, 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 Ansted 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 Ansted — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ansted — the short answer
Ansted, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Ansted's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ansted's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ansted
Each reading below is measured for Ansted itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAnsted runs about 208 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
MeasuredAnsted 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 Ansted is in
Ansted sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ansted's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fayette County.
What Grows in Ansted
Every plant below cleared Ansted's own zone 7a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ansted?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Ansted
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ansted checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 76 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ansted
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ansted. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAMDEN ON GAULEY MEDICAL CENTER INC DBA CAMDEN FAMILY HEALTHBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MIDLAND TRAIL SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HAWKS NEST STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ANSTED SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #13690Brownfields · 2200 ft
- LITTLE GENERAL STORE #2405Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 106 TYREE ST OPERATIONS LLCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- A & G IMPORT PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- RITE AID CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Fay-0287Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- MIDLAND TRAIL MOTEL / FORMER STANDARD OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- OLD GINO FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ansted'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 Ansted.
Total Sites
250
within ~10 miles of Ansted
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ansted
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ansted
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ansted, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 96 sites within ~10 miles of Ansted. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ansted
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 Ansted average
Your land is one point inside Ansted
Everything above resolves to Ansted as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Ansted Average
Ansted Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ansted
- ●One soil character for all of Ansted
- ●Frost dates read at Ansted's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ansted's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ansted
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ansted, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ansted averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ansted — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ansted average
How we know this about Ansted
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 Ansted’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 Ansted
When does frost risk typically end in Ansted?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ansted typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Ansted?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ansted typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ansted?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ansted sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 18, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ansted?
The federal record around Ansted is a meaningful one — 250 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (106), the nearest Brownfields 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 Ansted?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ansted's scale — its 7a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ansted'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 Ansted’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ansted's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,098 acres it covers and 250 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ansted's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ansted's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 1 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 250 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ansted, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ansted's boundary and the 1,098 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ansted's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ansted 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 Ansted's 1,098 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette County
- The growing challenges every West Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom West Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ansted's 1,098 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ansted you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,098 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Ansted-wide figureread your own land →
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