Shepherdstown, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Shepherdstown, 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 Shepherdstown 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 Shepherdstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shepherdstown — the short answer
Shepherdstown, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 257 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 257 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 Shepherdstown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shepherdstown's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shepherdstown
Each reading below is measured for Shepherdstown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShepherdstown runs about 209 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
MeasuredShepherdstown 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 Shepherdstown is in
Shepherdstown sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shepherdstown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Shepherdstown
Every plant below cleared Shepherdstown's own zone 7a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shepherdstown?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Shepherdstown
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Shepherdstown, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Shepherdstown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shepherdstown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHEPHERD COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SHEPHERD UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 850 ft
- NORMAN J SECRIST PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SHEPHERDSTOWN WASTE WATER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TRAIL'S CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MAIN LIFT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- W H KNODE'S SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JEFFERSON MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NORFOLK & SOUTHERN RAILWAY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SHEETZ INC STORE #160Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- RM ROACH & SONS INC - ROCS LOCAL MARKET 642Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- WA Dh 11Nitrate · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shepherdstown'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 Shepherdstown.
Total Sites
1,050
within ~10 miles of Shepherdstown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shepherdstown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shepherdstown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shepherdstown, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 586 sites within ~10 miles of Shepherdstown. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Shepherdstown
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 Shepherdstown average
Your land is one point inside Shepherdstown
Everything above resolves to Shepherdstown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 257 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 Shepherdstown Average
Shepherdstown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Shepherdstown
- ●One soil character for all of Shepherdstown
- ●Frost dates read at Shepherdstown's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shepherdstown's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shepherdstown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shepherdstown, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shepherdstown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shepherdstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shepherdstown average
How we know this about Shepherdstown
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 Shepherdstown’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 Shepherdstown
When does frost risk typically end in Shepherdstown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shepherdstown typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Shepherdstown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shepherdstown typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shepherdstown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shepherdstown sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 18, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shepherdstown?
The federal record around Shepherdstown is a meaningful one — 1,050 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (586), 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 Shepherdstown?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shepherdstown's scale — its 7a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shepherdstown'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 Shepherdstown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Shepherdstown's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 257 acres it covers and 1,050 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shepherdstown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shepherdstown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 1 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,050 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shepherdstown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shepherdstown's boundary and the 257 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shepherdstown's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Shepherdstownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shepherdstown's 257 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shepherdstown's 257 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shepherdstown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 257 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 Shepherdstown-wide figureread your own land →