Brandywine, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Brandywine, 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 Brandywine 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 Brandywine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brandywine — the short answer
Brandywine, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 314 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 314 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 Brandywine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brandywine's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brandywine
Each reading below is measured for Brandywine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrandywine runs about 187 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
MeasuredBrandywine 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 Brandywine is in
Brandywine sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brandywine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pendleton County.
What Grows in Brandywine
Every plant below cleared Brandywine's own zone 7a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brandywine?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Brandywine
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Brandywine, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brandywine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brandywine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRANDYWINE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CENTER FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HOTT & MILLER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GALFORDS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- M L SNYDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- SOUTH FORK VOL FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PEERS FURNITUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- BRANDYWINE GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Pen-0166Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- VR-F1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- Pen-0167Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- COUNTRY ROADS COLLISIONBrownfields · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brandywine'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 Brandywine.
Total Sites
67
within ~10 miles of Brandywine
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brandywine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brandywine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brandywine, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Brandywine. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Brandywine
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 Brandywine average
Your land is one point inside Brandywine
Everything above resolves to Brandywine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 314 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 Brandywine Average
Brandywine Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Brandywine
- ●One soil character for all of Brandywine
- ●Frost dates read at Brandywine's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brandywine's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brandywine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brandywine, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brandywine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brandywine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brandywine average
How we know this about Brandywine
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 Brandywine’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 Brandywine
When does frost risk typically end in Brandywine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brandywine typically lands around Apr 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 May 11.
When is the first frost in Brandywine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brandywine typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brandywine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brandywine sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 10, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brandywine?
The federal record around Brandywine is a meaningful one — 67 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (35), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Brandywine?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brandywine's scale — its 7a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brandywine'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 Brandywine’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brandywine's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 314 acres it covers and 67 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brandywine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brandywine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 24 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 67 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brandywine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brandywine's boundary and the 314 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brandywine's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brandywinelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brandywine's 314 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pendleton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pendleton 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 Pendleton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brandywine's 314 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brandywine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 314 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Brandywine-wide figureread your own land →