Hinton, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hinton, 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 Hinton 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 Hinton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hinton — the short answer
Hinton, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- 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
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Hinton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hinton's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hinton
Each reading below is measured for Hinton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHinton runs about 212 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
MeasuredHinton 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 Hinton is in
Hinton sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hinton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Summers County.
What Grows in Hinton
Every plant below cleared Hinton's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hinton?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Hinton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hinton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 42 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hinton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hinton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BIG FOUR DRUG STORE, INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- PIT ROW STORE #228Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BLUE STONE TIRE SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CITY LIMITS DOWNTOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DAN HARMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CSX TRANSPORTATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SUMMERS COUNTY SCHOOL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SUMMERS CO SCHOOL BUS GARAGEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- EADES MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- S & H SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MARK WARD (PROPERTY OWNER)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WOODS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hinton'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 Hinton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hinton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hinton
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Hinton
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 Hinton average
Your land is one point inside Hinton
Everything above resolves to Hinton 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 city 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 Hinton Average
Hinton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Hinton
- ●One soil character for all of Hinton
- ●Frost dates read at Hinton's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hinton's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hinton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hinton, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hinton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hinton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hinton average
How we know this about Hinton
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Hinton’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Hinton
When does frost risk typically end in Hinton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hinton typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Hinton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hinton 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 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hinton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hinton sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 18, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hinton?
The federal record around Hinton shows 120 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Hinton?
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 Hinton's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hinton'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 Hinton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hinton's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,429 acres it covers and 120 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hinton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hinton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 1 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 120 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hinton, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hinton's boundary and the 1,429 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hinton's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hinton 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 Hinton's 1,429 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Summers County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Summers 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 Summers County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hinton's 1,429 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hinton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,429 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Hinton-wide figureread your own land →
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