Matheny, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Matheny, 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 Matheny 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 Matheny — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Matheny — the short answer
Matheny, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Matheny's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Matheny's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Matheny
Each reading below is measured for Matheny itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMatheny runs about 214 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
MeasuredMatheny 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 Matheny is in
Matheny sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Matheny's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wyoming County.
What Grows in Matheny
Every plant below cleared Matheny's own zone 7a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Matheny?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Matheny
Survey cells within 31 miles of Matheny checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 58 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Matheny
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Matheny. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wyo-0265Nitrate · 1500 ft
- DIXON'S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RITEWAY PACKETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- C & W ASHLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WV STATE POLICE/JESSE DETACHMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- JESSE PACKETTE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- STAR-LITE CONSTRUCTIONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- LINCOLN COUNTY PRIMARY CARE CENTER, INC DBA OCEANA MEDICAL PHARMACYBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- LAMB'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MCGUIRE PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MIKES AUTOMOTIVE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 35920Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Matheny'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 Matheny.
Total Sites
162
within ~10 miles of Matheny
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Matheny
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Matheny
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Matheny, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 102 sites within ~10 miles of Matheny. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Matheny
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 Matheny average
Your land is one point inside Matheny
Everything above resolves to Matheny as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Matheny Average
Matheny Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Matheny
- ●One soil character for all of Matheny
- ●Frost dates read at Matheny's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Matheny's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Matheny
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Matheny, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Matheny averages can't show:
We read public map data around Matheny — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Matheny average
How we know this about Matheny
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 Matheny’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 Matheny
When does frost risk typically end in Matheny?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Matheny typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Matheny?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Matheny typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Matheny?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Matheny sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 19, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Matheny?
The federal record around Matheny shows 162 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (102), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Matheny?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Matheny's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Matheny'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 Matheny’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Matheny's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,240 acres it covers and 162 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Matheny's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Matheny's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 2 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 162 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Matheny, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Matheny's boundary and the 2,240 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Matheny's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Matheny 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 Matheny's 2,240 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wyoming County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wyoming 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 Wyoming County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Matheny's 2,240 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Matheny you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,240 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Matheny-wide figureread your own land →
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