Ravenswood, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ravenswood, 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 Ravenswood 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 Ravenswood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ravenswood — the short answer
Ravenswood, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- 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
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Ravenswood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ravenswood's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ravenswood
Each reading below is measured for Ravenswood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRavenswood runs about 204 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
MeasuredRavenswood 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 Ravenswood is in
Ravenswood sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ravenswood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Ravenswood
Every plant below cleared Ravenswood's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ravenswood?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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 Ravenswood
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ravenswood checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 72 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ravenswood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ravenswood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RAVENSWOOD VILLAGE HEALTH CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- IOUE LOCAL 132 APPRENTICESHIP PRUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- RAVENSWOOD SOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CITY OF RAVENSWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- 200 SOUTH RITCHIE AVENUE OPERATIONS LLCBrownfields · 850 ft
- PAR MAR # 9Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- COPLIN - RIVER VALLEY FAMILY CENTERBrownfields · 1300 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE #5665Brownfields · 1400 ft
- RAVENSWOOD OFFICE & SERVICE CENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WOLF'S CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RAVENSWOOD HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MOUNTAINEER GAS CO - RAVENSWOOD SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ravenswood'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 Ravenswood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ravenswood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ravenswood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ravenswood, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Ravenswood. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ravenswood
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 Ravenswood average
Your land is one point inside Ravenswood
Everything above resolves to Ravenswood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 city 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 Ravenswood Average
Ravenswood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ravenswood
- ●One soil character for all of Ravenswood
- ●Frost dates read at Ravenswood's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ravenswood's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ravenswood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ravenswood, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ravenswood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ravenswood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ravenswood average
How we know this about Ravenswood
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Ravenswood’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Ravenswood
When does frost risk typically end in Ravenswood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ravenswood typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Ravenswood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ravenswood 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 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ravenswood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ravenswood sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 15, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ravenswood?
The federal record around Ravenswood is a meaningful one — 190 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (94), 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 Ravenswood?
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 Ravenswood's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ravenswood'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 Ravenswood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ravenswood's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,163 acres it covers and 190 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ravenswood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ravenswood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 29 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 190 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ravenswood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ravenswood's boundary and the 1,163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ravenswood's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ravenswood 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 Ravenswood's 1,163 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ravenswood's 1,163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ravenswood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,163 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 Ravenswood-wide figureread your own land →
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