Elkview, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Elkview, 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 Elkview 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 Elkview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elkview — the short answer
Elkview, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- 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 7a is Elkview's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elkview's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elkview
Each reading below is measured for Elkview itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElkview runs about 220 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
MeasuredElkview 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 Elkview is in
Elkview sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elkview's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Kanawha County is mostly Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Elkview
Every plant below cleared Elkview's own zone 7a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elkview?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Elkview
Survey cells within 31 miles of Elkview checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 102 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Elkview
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elkview. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCOTT CARPENTER EXCAVATING CO.Brownfields · 2000 ft
- BLUE CREEK SUB-AREA OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WALGREENS #19090Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 35936Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ELK VALLEY SANITATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ELKVIEW SCHOOL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ELKVIEW PENNZOILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SENIOR LIFE PHARMACYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- WVDOH - ELKVIEW HEADQUARTERSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- O V SMITH & SONS - PROPERTY OWNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- NATIONAL BELT SERVICE OF WVBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- BLUE CREEK EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elkview'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 Elkview.
Total Sites
339
within ~10 miles of Elkview
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elkview
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elkview
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elkview, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Elkview. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Elkview
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 Elkview average
Your land is one point inside Elkview
Everything above resolves to Elkview 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 Elkview Average
Elkview Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Elkview
- ●One soil character for all of Elkview
- ●Frost dates read at Elkview's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elkview's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elkview
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elkview, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elkview averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elkview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elkview average
How we know this about Elkview
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 Elkview’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 Elkview
When does frost risk typically end in Elkview?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elkview typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Elkview?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elkview typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elkview?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elkview sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 24, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elkview?
The federal record around Elkview is a meaningful one — 339 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (207), 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 Elkview?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elkview's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elkview'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 Elkview’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Elkview's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,075 acres it covers and 339 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elkview's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elkview's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 7 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 339 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elkview, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elkview's boundary and the 1,075 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Elkview sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Elkview 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 Elkview's 1,075 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kanawha County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kanawha 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 Kanawha County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elkview's 1,075 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elkview you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,075 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 Elkview-wide figureread your own land →