Piedmont, 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 Piedmont, 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 Piedmont 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 Piedmont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Piedmont — the short answer
Piedmont, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 244 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- 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
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 244 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 Piedmont's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Piedmont's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Piedmont
Each reading below is measured for Piedmont itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPiedmont runs about 199 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
MeasuredPiedmont 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 Piedmont is in
Piedmont sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Piedmont's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mineral County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Piedmont
Every plant below cleared Piedmont's own zone 6b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Piedmont?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Piedmont
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Piedmont, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Piedmont
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Piedmont. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- D & H INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Upper Potomac River CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PIEDMONT SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Fair Price MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Carl Belt ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Town of WesternportUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Westvaco CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Savage WoodyardUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Westvaco Resources, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Luke MillUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Town of Luke City BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LUKE PAPER COBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Piedmont'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 Piedmont.
Total Sites
209
within ~10 miles of Piedmont
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Piedmont
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Piedmont
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Piedmont, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 131 sites within ~10 miles of Piedmont. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Piedmont
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 Piedmont average
Your land is one point inside Piedmont
Everything above resolves to Piedmont as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 244 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 Piedmont Average
Piedmont Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Piedmont
- ●One soil character for all of Piedmont
- ●Frost dates read at Piedmont's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Piedmont's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Piedmont
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Piedmont, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Piedmont averages can't show:
We read public map data around Piedmont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Piedmont average
How we know this about Piedmont
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 Piedmont’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 Piedmont
When does frost risk typically end in Piedmont?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Piedmont typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Piedmont?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Piedmont 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 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Piedmont?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Piedmont sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 15, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Piedmont?
The federal record around Piedmont is a meaningful one — 209 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (131), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Piedmont?
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 Piedmont's scale — its 6b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Piedmont'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 Piedmont’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Piedmont's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 244 acres it covers and 209 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Piedmont's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Piedmont's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 29 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 209 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Piedmont, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Piedmont's boundary and the 244 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Piedmont sits in the Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Piedmontlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Piedmont's 244 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mineral County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mineral 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 Mineral County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Piedmont's 244 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Piedmont you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 244 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 Piedmont-wide figureread your own land →
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