Leon, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Leon, 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 Leon 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 Leon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leon — the short answer
Leon, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 205 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 205 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 Leon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leon's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leon
Each reading below is measured for Leon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeon 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
MeasuredLeon 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 Leon is in
Leon sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mason County.
What Grows in Leon
Every plant below cleared Leon'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 Leon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Leon
Survey cells within 31 miles of Leon checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 87 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Leon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROLLINS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ALPHA HERDMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LEON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Mas-0963Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- Mas-0960Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- Mas-0962Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- Mas-0885Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- Mas-0894Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- STOVER TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- WILLIAMSON PALLET COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Mas-0230Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #25121Brownfields · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leon'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 Leon.
Total Sites
97
within ~10 miles of Leon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leon, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Leon. 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 Leon
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 Leon average
Your land is one point inside Leon
Everything above resolves to Leon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 205 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 Leon Average
Leon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Leon
- ●One soil character for all of Leon
- ●Frost dates read at Leon's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leon's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leon, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leon average
How we know this about Leon
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 Leon’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 Leon
When does frost risk typically end in Leon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leon typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Leon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leon typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leon sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 15, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leon?
The federal record around Leon is a meaningful one — 97 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Leon?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leon's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leon'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 Leon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Leon's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 205 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 29 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leon's boundary and the 205 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 Leon's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Leon 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 Leon's 205 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mason County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mason 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 Mason County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leon's 205 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 205 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Leon-wide figureread your own land →