Deep Water, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Deep Water, 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 Deep Water 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 Deep Water — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deep Water — the short answer
Deep Water, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 565 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 565 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 Deep Water's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deep Water's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deep Water
Each reading below is measured for Deep Water itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeep Water runs about 224 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDeep Water 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 Deep Water is in
Deep Water sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Deep Water's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fayette County.
What Grows in Deep Water
Every plant below cleared Deep Water's own zone 7a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deep Water?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Deep Water
Survey cells within 31 miles of Deep Water checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 78 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Deep Water
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deep Water. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WVDOH - FALLS VIEW SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BILL'S BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Fay-0089Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- ELKEM METALS COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SPONAUGLE GROCERY/SERV STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Fay-0270Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- STELLA E STEPHENS GULF STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- FORMER EXXON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MORRISON PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- QUIK MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- VILLAGE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Union Carbide Ferroalloy DivMining · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deep Water'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 Deep Water.
Total Sites
254
within ~10 miles of Deep Water
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deep Water
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deep Water
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deep Water, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Deep Water. 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 Deep Water
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 Deep Water average
Your land is one point inside Deep Water
Everything above resolves to Deep Water as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 565 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 Deep Water Average
Deep Water Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Deep Water
- ●One soil character for all of Deep Water
- ●Frost dates read at Deep Water's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deep Water's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deep Water
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deep Water, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deep Water averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deep Water — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deep Water average
How we know this about Deep Water
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 Deep Water’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 Deep Water
When does frost risk typically end in Deep Water?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deep Water typically lands around Mar 30, 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 Apr 20.
When is the first frost in Deep Water?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deep Water typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deep Water?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deep Water sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 26, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deep Water?
The federal record around Deep Water is a meaningful one — 254 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (132), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Deep Water?
From about Oct 10 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 Nov 9 (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 Nov 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deep Water's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deep Water'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 Deep Water’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Deep Water's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 565 acres it covers and 254 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deep Water's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deep Water's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 9 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 254 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deep Water, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deep Water's boundary and the 565 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deep Water's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Deep Water 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 Deep Water's 565 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deep Water's 565 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deep Water you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 565 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Deep Water-wide figureread your own land →
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