Hardy County, in 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.
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.
Hardy County lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hardy County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hardy County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Hardy County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hardy County — the short answer
Hardy County, West Virginia: USDA zone 6a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 373K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 373K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Hardy County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hardy County's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Hardy County
Across a year, Hardy County accumulates about 2,340 growing degree days above 50°F, about 670 fewer than the middle West Virginia county — ahead of 2 of West Virginia’s 55 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Hardy County
Across Hardy County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Berks, Dekalb, and Weikert are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
5%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hardy County
The USDA soil survey maps 81% of Hardy County as well drained — but another 17% drains differently: 12% moderately well drained, 3% somewhat excessively drained.
Berks is the most extensive named soil at 34% of mapped acres, then Dekalb (9%) and Weikert (9%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Hardy County
Each reading below is measured for Hardy County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Hardy County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Hardy County runs about pH 5.0–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredHardy County runs about 180 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
MeasuredHardy County 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 Hardy County is in
Hardy County sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Hardy County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hardy County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 180-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile.
Is it too late to plant in Hardy County?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Hardy County
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Hardy County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle3 documented records
- monarch butterfly12 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hardy County
USGS estimates 17,412 lb of Glyphosate on Hardy County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (9,322 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (8,031 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Hardy County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hardy County — 158 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Hardy County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Hardy County
Closest first, across Hardy County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION LLC - HARDY COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- VR-12Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- HARDY TELEPHONE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- C L BOTTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- AGAPE FAMILY FELLOWSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- REVA BOWMAN PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- WARDEN RIDGE AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- CHARLES A FUNKHOUSERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- M & L TRUCK SERVICEBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- A CORNER MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- BAKER WORKSHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- BOWMEN'S SPORTING GOODS & GROCERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hardy County'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 Hardy County.
Total Sites
158
across Hardy County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Hardy County
Severity Distribution
across Hardy County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hardy County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 10 sites across Hardy County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hardy County
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 Hardy County average
Your land is one point inside Hardy County
Everything above resolves to Hardy County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 373K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Hardy County Average
Hardy County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hardy County
- ●One soil character for all of Hardy County
- ●Frost dates read at Hardy County's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hardy County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hardy County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hardy County, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hardy County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hardy County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hardy County average
How we know this about Hardy County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Hardy County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hardy County
When does frost risk typically end in Hardy County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hardy County typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
How long is the growing season in Hardy County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hardy County sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 8, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hardy County?
The federal record around Hardy County shows 158 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.3 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.
Everything above is measured at Hardy County's scale — its 6a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hardy County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads West Virginia's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Hardy County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hardy County's own scale — its own ~180-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 158 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hardy County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hardy County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hardy CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 158 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 2.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hardy County's boundary and the 372,682 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hardy County sitting wholly inside the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hardy County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hardy County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every West Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom West Virginia
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Hardy County — the ~180 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hardy County's 372,682 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 158 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Hardy Countyread your own land →