Bayard, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Bayard, 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 Bayard 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 Bayard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bayard — the short answer
Bayard, West Virginia: USDA zone 6a, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 199 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 199 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 6a is Bayard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bayard's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bayard
Each reading below is measured for Bayard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBayard runs about 166 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBayard sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Bayard is in
Bayard sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bayard's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Grant County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bayard
Every plant below cleared Bayard's own zone 6a and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bayard?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Bayard
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Bayard, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bayard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bayard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RUTH FOSTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- VEPCO SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- C-1Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NORTH BRANCH MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ALPINE PREPARATION PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- RT 90 SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GORMANIA GAS & GO, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY, BAYARD/NORTHToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- GA Fb 42Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- GA Fb 44Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- GA Fb 43Nitrate · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bayard'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 Bayard.
Total Sites
170
within ~10 miles of Bayard
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bayard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bayard
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Bayard
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 Bayard average
Your land is one point inside Bayard
Everything above resolves to Bayard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 199 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 Bayard Average
Bayard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bayard
- ●One soil character for all of Bayard
- ●Frost dates read at Bayard's scale: May 2 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bayard's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bayard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bayard, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bayard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bayard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bayard average
How we know this about Bayard
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 Bayard’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 Bayard
When does frost risk typically end in Bayard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bayard typically lands around May 2, 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 May 23.
When is the first frost in Bayard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bayard typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bayard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bayard sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Oct 1, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bayard?
The federal record around Bayard shows 170 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Bayard?
From about Sep 15 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 Oct 15 (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 Oct 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bayard's scale — its 6a band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bayard'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 Bayard’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bayard's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 199 acres it covers and 170 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bayard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bayard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 15 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 170 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bayard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bayard's boundary and the 199 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bayard sits in the Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bayardlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bayard's 199 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bayard's 199 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bayard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 199 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 Bayard-wide figureread your own land →