Rachel, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rachel, 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 Rachel 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 Rachel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rachel — the short answer
Rachel, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 219 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 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 219 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 Rachel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rachel's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rachel
Each reading below is measured for Rachel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRachel runs about 200 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
MeasuredRachel 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 Rachel is in
Rachel sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rachel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Rachel
Every plant below cleared Rachel's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rachel?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 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 Rachel
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Rachel, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rachel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rachel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOANNE MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DOWNS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CORWIN FORD SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MOUNTAINEER GAS CO - MANNINGTON SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #5955Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- SHOP-N-SAVE EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- JAMES CHEVROLET COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #914Brownfields · 1.9 mi
- HARVEY'S AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- S/S LOC #25291Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MANCHIN PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- LITTLE GENERAL STORE #7530Brownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rachel'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 Rachel.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rachel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rachel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rachel, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 304 sites within ~10 miles of Rachel. 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 Rachel
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 Rachel average
Your land is one point inside Rachel
Everything above resolves to Rachel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 219 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 Rachel Average
Rachel Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Rachel
- ●One soil character for all of Rachel
- ●Frost dates read at Rachel's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rachel's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rachel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rachel, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rachel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rachel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rachel average
How we know this about Rachel
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 Rachel’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 Rachel
When does frost risk typically end in Rachel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rachel 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 Rachel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rachel 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 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rachel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rachel sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 14, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rachel?
The federal record around Rachel is a meaningful one — 453 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (304), 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 Rachel?
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 Rachel's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rachel'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 Rachel’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rachel's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 219 acres it covers and 453 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rachel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rachel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 28 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 453 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rachel, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rachel's boundary and the 219 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rachel's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Rachellydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rachel's 219 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rachel's 219 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rachel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 219 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 Rachel-wide figureread your own land →
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