Ridgeley, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ridgeley, 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 Ridgeley 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 Ridgeley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ridgeley — the short answer
Ridgeley, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 186 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 186 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 Ridgeley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ridgeley's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ridgeley
Each reading below is measured for Ridgeley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRidgeley 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
MeasuredRidgeley 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 Ridgeley is in
Ridgeley sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ridgeley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mineral County.
What Grows in Ridgeley
Every plant below cleared Ridgeley'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 Ridgeley?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Ridgeley
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Ridgeley, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ridgeley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ridgeley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- B & B TRANSITBrownfields · 700 ft
- WESTERN MD SCENIC RRBrownfields · 1000 ft
- TOWN OF RIDGELEY CITY BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CSX TRANSPORTATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- The Kelly Springfield Tire Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KELLY SPRINGFIELD TIRE COBrownfields · 2100 ft
- NELSON AUTO SALESBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Maryland State Police Finzel Facility C.V.E.D.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Pepsi ColaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ALIZEE PATHOLOGY, CUMBERLANDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Queen City Electric CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Crites TranferUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ridgeley'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 Ridgeley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ridgeley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ridgeley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ridgeley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ridgeley — PFAS (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (284 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ridgeley
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 Ridgeley average
Your land is one point inside Ridgeley
Everything above resolves to Ridgeley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 186 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 Ridgeley Average
Ridgeley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ridgeley
- ●One soil character for all of Ridgeley
- ●Frost dates read at Ridgeley's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ridgeley's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ridgeley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ridgeley, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ridgeley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ridgeley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ridgeley average
How we know this about Ridgeley
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 Ridgeley’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 Ridgeley
When does frost risk typically end in Ridgeley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ridgeley typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Ridgeley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ridgeley typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ridgeley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ridgeley sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 21, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ridgeley?
The federal record around Ridgeley is a meaningful one — 462 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (284), the nearest Brownfields 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 Ridgeley?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ridgeley's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ridgeley'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 Ridgeley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ridgeley's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 186 acres it covers and 462 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ridgeley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ridgeley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 4 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 462 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ridgeley, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ridgeley's boundary and the 186 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 Ridgeley's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ridgeleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ridgeley's 186 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 Ridgeley's 186 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ridgeley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 186 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Ridgeley-wide figureread your own land →
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