Ellenboro, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ellenboro, 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 Ellenboro 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 Ellenboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ellenboro — the short answer
Ellenboro, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 720 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 720 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 Ellenboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ellenboro's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ellenboro
Each reading below is measured for Ellenboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEllenboro runs about 201 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
MeasuredEllenboro 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 Ellenboro is in
Ellenboro sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ellenboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ritchie County.
What Grows in Ellenboro
Every plant below cleared Ellenboro's own zone 6b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ellenboro?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Ellenboro
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ellenboro checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ellenboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ellenboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GO MART # 103Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GO-MART INC STORE #103Brownfields · 1200 ft
- HALL PETROLEUM INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- COLLISION AND CUSTOM PAINTSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- FARMERS EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ELLENBORO EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SILVER STAR GROC (LARRY E RISER)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LAMBERT TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- UNCERTAIN/NO FORMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RAVENS REBUILDERSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SIMONTON WINDOWSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- JAY BEE OIL & GAS INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ellenboro'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 Ellenboro.
Total Sites
120
within ~10 miles of Ellenboro
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ellenboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ellenboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ellenboro, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Ellenboro. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ellenboro
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 Ellenboro average
Your land is one point inside Ellenboro
Everything above resolves to Ellenboro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 720 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 Ellenboro Average
Ellenboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ellenboro
- ●One soil character for all of Ellenboro
- ●Frost dates read at Ellenboro's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ellenboro's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ellenboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ellenboro, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ellenboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ellenboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ellenboro average
How we know this about Ellenboro
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 Ellenboro’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 Ellenboro
When does frost risk typically end in Ellenboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ellenboro typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Ellenboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ellenboro typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ellenboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ellenboro sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 14, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ellenboro?
The federal record around Ellenboro is a meaningful one — 120 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ellenboro?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ellenboro's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ellenboro'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 Ellenboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ellenboro's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 720 acres it covers and 120 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ellenboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ellenboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 28 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 120 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ellenboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ellenboro's boundary and the 720 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ellenboro's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ellenboro 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 Ellenboro's 720 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ritchie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ritchie 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 Ritchie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ellenboro's 720 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ellenboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 720 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ellenboro-wide figureread your own land →
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