Brush Fork, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brush Fork, 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 Brush Fork 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 Brush Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Brush Fork — the short answer
Brush Fork, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- 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 6b is Brush Fork's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brush Fork's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brush Fork
Each reading below is measured for Brush Fork itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrush Fork runs about 198 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
MeasuredBrush Fork 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 Brush Fork is in
Brush Fork sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brush Fork's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mercer County.
What Grows in Brush Fork
Every plant below cleared Brush Fork's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brush Fork?
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 Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Brush Fork
Spotted lanternfly documented 26 miles from Brush Fork, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brush Fork
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brush Fork. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EASTERN TANK & UTILITY SERVICES INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- GENESIS RAIL SERVICES, INC & CODY ENERGY SERVICES, INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- UNDERWOODS TRANSMISSIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- AIRGAS MID AMERICAToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- EIMCO LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- BLUEFIELD GEAR & MACHINE - SITE ABrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BLUEFIELD MACHINE SHOPBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BLUEFIELD STATE UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BLUEFIELD STATE COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EIMCO COAL MACHINERY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- T AND N ELECTRIC MOTOR EXCHANGE INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- BLUEFIELD GAS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brush Fork'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 Brush Fork.
Total Sites
430
within ~10 miles of Brush Fork
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brush Fork
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brush Fork
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brush Fork, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Brush Fork — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (267 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Brush Fork
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 Brush Fork average
Your land is one point inside Brush Fork
Everything above resolves to Brush Fork 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 Brush Fork Average
Brush Fork Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Brush Fork
- ●One soil character for all of Brush Fork
- ●Frost dates read at Brush Fork's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brush Fork's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brush Fork
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brush Fork, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brush Fork averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brush Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brush Fork average
How we know this about Brush Fork
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 Brush Fork’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 Brush Fork
When does frost risk typically end in Brush Fork?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brush Fork typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Brush Fork?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brush Fork typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brush Fork?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brush Fork sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 13, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brush Fork?
The federal record around Brush Fork is a meaningful one — 430 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (267), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Brush Fork?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brush Fork's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brush Fork'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 Brush Fork’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brush Fork's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,217 acres it covers and 430 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brush Fork's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brush Fork's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 27 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 430 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brush Fork, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brush Fork's boundary and the 1,217 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brush Fork's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brush Forklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brush Fork's 1,217 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brush Fork's 1,217 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brush Fork you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,217 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Brush Fork-wide figureread your own land →
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