Peterstown, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Peterstown, 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 Peterstown 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 Peterstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Peterstown — the short answer
Peterstown, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 202 acres of town.
- 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)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 202 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 Peterstown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peterstown's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Peterstown
Each reading below is measured for Peterstown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPeterstown runs about 208 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
MeasuredPeterstown 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 Peterstown is in
Peterstown sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Peterstown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Peterstown
Every plant below cleared Peterstown's own zone 7a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Peterstown?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Peterstown
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Peterstown, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Peterstown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Peterstown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RED SULPHUS PSDUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- PETERSTOWN MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- PETERSTOWN SUB STA 09322Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- J B S AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- PENCE'S TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CRAWFORDS GARAGEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- VA0124Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DQ Grill & ChillUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MCKENZIE LUMBER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- F H CRAWFORD & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- F H CRAWFORD & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- COMMONWEALTH BOLT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Peterstown'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 Peterstown.
Total Sites
147
within ~10 miles of Peterstown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Peterstown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Peterstown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Peterstown, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 91 sites within ~10 miles of Peterstown. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Peterstown
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 Peterstown average
Your land is one point inside Peterstown
Everything above resolves to Peterstown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 202 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 Peterstown Average
Peterstown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Peterstown
- ●One soil character for all of Peterstown
- ●Frost dates read at Peterstown's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peterstown's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Peterstown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peterstown, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peterstown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peterstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peterstown average
How we know this about Peterstown
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 Peterstown’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 Peterstown
When does frost risk typically end in Peterstown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peterstown 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 Peterstown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Peterstown 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 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Peterstown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peterstown sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 14, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peterstown?
The federal record around Peterstown is a meaningful one — 147 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Peterstown?
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 Peterstown's scale — its 7a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peterstown'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 Peterstown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Peterstown's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 202 acres it covers and 147 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peterstown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Peterstown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 28 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 147 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Peterstown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Peterstown's boundary and the 202 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Peterstown's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Peterstownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Peterstown's 202 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Peterstown's 202 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Peterstown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 202 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Peterstown-wide figureread your own land →
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