Blacksville, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Blacksville, 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 Blacksville 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 Blacksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blacksville — the short answer
Blacksville, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 191 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 191 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 6b is Blacksville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blacksville's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blacksville
Each reading below is measured for Blacksville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlacksville runs about 193 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
MeasuredBlacksville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Blacksville is in
Blacksville sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blacksville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monongalia County.
What Grows in Blacksville
Every plant below cleared Blacksville's own zone 6b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blacksville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Blacksville
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Blacksville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Blacksville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blacksville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mng-0547Nitrate · 1700 ft
- WILLARDS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Mng-0543Nitrate · 2000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #9880Brownfields · 2300 ft
- 7-ELEVEN # 35937Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CLAY-BATTELLE PHARMACYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- 7-ELEVEN # 35937Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- MONONGALIA COUNTY SCHOOLS - CLAY BATTELLE HIGHBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Mng-0546Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- BLACKSVILLE BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- COWELL'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BLACKSVILLE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blacksville'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 Blacksville.
Total Sites
127
within ~10 miles of Blacksville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blacksville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blacksville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blacksville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Blacksville — Nitrate (56 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Blacksville
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 Blacksville average
Your land is one point inside Blacksville
Everything above resolves to Blacksville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 191 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 Blacksville Average
Blacksville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Blacksville
- ●One soil character for all of Blacksville
- ●Frost dates read at Blacksville's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blacksville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blacksville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blacksville, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blacksville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blacksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blacksville average
How we know this about Blacksville
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 Blacksville’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 Blacksville
When does frost risk typically end in Blacksville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blacksville typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Blacksville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blacksville typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blacksville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blacksville sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 11, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blacksville?
The federal record around Blacksville shows 127 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (56), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Blacksville?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blacksville's scale — its 6b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blacksville'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 Blacksville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Blacksville's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 191 acres it covers and 127 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blacksville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blacksville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 25 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 127 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blacksville, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blacksville's boundary and the 191 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blacksville's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Blacksvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blacksville's 191 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monongalia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monongalia 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 Monongalia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blacksville's 191 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blacksville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 191 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Blacksville-wide figureread your own land →
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