Craigsville, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Craigsville, 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 Craigsville 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 Craigsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Craigsville — the short answer
Craigsville, West Virginia: USDA zone 6a, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Craigsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Craigsville's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Craigsville
Each reading below is measured for Craigsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCraigsville runs about 191 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
MeasuredCraigsville 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 Craigsville is in
Craigsville sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Craigsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nicholas County.
What Grows in Craigsville
Every plant below cleared Craigsville's own zone 6a and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Craigsville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Craigsville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Craigsville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 75 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Craigsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Craigsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NICHOLAS CO VOCATIONAL CNTREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GO MART STORE #019Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- VARIOUS FARMS FOR SOIL AMENDMENTToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- REISS VIKING DIVISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HEWITT, INC.Brownfields · 2100 ft
- MOWERYS ADVANCED AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 2400 ft
- CAMDEN ON GAULEY MEDICAL CENTER INC DBA CAMDEN FAMILY HEALTHBrownfields · 2500 ft
- GO MART # 019Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MOUNTAINEER MART 12Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- STANDARD HYDRAULICS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COCA-COLA BTLG COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CRAIGSVILLE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Craigsville'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 Craigsville.
Total Sites
269
within ~10 miles of Craigsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Craigsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Craigsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Craigsville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 120 sites within ~10 miles of Craigsville. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Craigsville
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 Craigsville average
Your land is one point inside Craigsville
Everything above resolves to Craigsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Craigsville Average
Craigsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Craigsville
- ●One soil character for all of Craigsville
- ●Frost dates read at Craigsville's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Craigsville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Craigsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Craigsville, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Craigsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Craigsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Craigsville average
How we know this about Craigsville
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 Craigsville’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 Craigsville
When does frost risk typically end in Craigsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Craigsville typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Craigsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Craigsville typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Craigsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Craigsville sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 12, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Craigsville?
The federal record around Craigsville is a meaningful one — 269 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (120), 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 Craigsville?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Craigsville's scale — its 6a band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Craigsville'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 Craigsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Craigsville's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,885 acres it covers and 269 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Craigsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Craigsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 26 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 269 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Craigsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Craigsville's boundary and the 3,885 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Craigsville's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Craigsville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Craigsville's 3,885 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nicholas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nicholas 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 Nicholas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Craigsville's 3,885 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Craigsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,885 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 Craigsville-wide figureread your own land →