Despard, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Despard, 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 Despard 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 Despard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Despard — the short answer
Despard, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 938 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 938 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 Despard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Despard's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Despard
Each reading below is measured for Despard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDespard runs about 207 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
MeasuredDespard 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 Despard is in
Despard sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Despard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Harrison County.
What Grows in Despard
Every plant below cleared Despard's own zone 6b and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Despard?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Despard
Spotted lanternfly documented 18 miles from Despard, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Despard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Despard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WV WELDING SUPPLY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COMMERCIAL TRUCK & TRACTOR REPAIRBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CHARLES MIHALICK 289-0221917Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AMTOWER AUTO - 306 CLARKSBURGBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ROLLINS MARKETBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BROUGHTON FOODS CO CLARKSBURG BRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BOB TRICKETT PONTIAC CADILLAC INUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ABM #289Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BORON OIL CO SITE #56029Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHERN STEEL PRODUCTS COBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- R C BOTTLING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KOVACH ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Despard'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 Despard.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Despard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Despard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Despard, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 405 sites within ~10 miles of Despard. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Despard
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 Despard average
Your land is one point inside Despard
Everything above resolves to Despard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 938 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 Despard Average
Despard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Despard
- ●One soil character for all of Despard
- ●Frost dates read at Despard's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Despard's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Despard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Despard, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Despard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Despard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Despard average
How we know this about Despard
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 Despard’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 Despard
When does frost risk typically end in Despard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Despard typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Despard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Despard typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Despard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Despard sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 18, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Despard?
The federal record around Despard is a meaningful one — 633 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (405), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Despard?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Despard's scale — its 6b band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Despard'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 Despard’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Despard's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 938 acres it covers and 633 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Despard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Despard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 1 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 633 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Despard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Despard's boundary and the 938 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Despard's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Despardlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Despard's 938 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harrison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harrison 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 Harrison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Despard's 938 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Despard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 938 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Despard-wide figureread your own land →
More in West Virginia
Growing region
Nearby growing guides