Falling Spring, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Falling Spring, 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 Falling Spring 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 Falling Spring — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Falling Spring — the short answer
Falling Spring, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 330 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 330 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 Falling Spring's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Falling Spring's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Falling Spring
Each reading below is measured for Falling Spring itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFalling Spring runs about 190 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
MeasuredFalling Spring 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 Falling Spring is in
Falling Spring sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Falling Spring's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greenbrier County.
What Grows in Falling Spring
Every plant below cleared Falling Spring's own zone 6b and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Falling Spring?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Falling Spring
Survey cells within 31 miles of Falling Spring checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 52 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Falling Spring
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Falling Spring. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONNIE W JOHNSTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- V & N GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DAVID SCOTT'S PROPERTY/NO FORMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- UNKNOWN ( MCKNIGHTS ?)Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- THE GREENBRIER EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FLIPPIN LUMBER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- FALLING SPRINGS STORE (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- OLD RENICK JR HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Grb-0122Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- CLENDENIN PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- CALLISON'S AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- SATCHS AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Falling Spring'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 Falling Spring.
Total Sites
62
within ~10 miles of Falling Spring
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Falling Spring
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Falling Spring
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Falling Spring, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Falling Spring. 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 Falling Spring
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 Falling Spring average
Your land is one point inside Falling Spring
Everything above resolves to Falling Spring as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 330 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 Falling Spring Average
Falling Spring Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Falling Spring
- ●One soil character for all of Falling Spring
- ●Frost dates read at Falling Spring's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Falling Spring's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Falling Spring
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Falling Spring, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Falling Spring averages can't show:
We read public map data around Falling Spring — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Falling Spring average
How we know this about Falling Spring
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 Falling Spring’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 Falling Spring
When does frost risk typically end in Falling Spring?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Falling Spring typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Falling Spring?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Falling Spring typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Falling Spring?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Falling Spring sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 9, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Falling Spring?
The federal record around Falling Spring shows 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Falling Spring?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Falling Spring's scale — its 6b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Falling Spring'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 Falling Spring’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Falling Spring's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 330 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Falling Spring's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Falling Spring's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 23 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Falling Spring, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Falling Spring's boundary and the 330 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Falling Spring's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Falling Spring 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 Falling Spring's 330 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greenbrier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greenbrier 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 Greenbrier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Falling Spring's 330 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Falling Spring you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 330 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 Falling Spring-wide figureread your own land →
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