Union, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Union, 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 Union 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 Union — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Union — the short answer
Union, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 286 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 286 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 Union's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Union's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Union
Each reading below is measured for Union itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUnion runs about 190 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
MeasuredUnion 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 Union is in
Union sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Union's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Union
Every plant below cleared Union's own zone 6b and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Union?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Union
Survey cells within 31 miles of Union checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Union
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Union. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MONROE CO HQ 09321Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MONROE MOTOR SLS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- JOHN U BROWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- FULLEN FERTILIZER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MONROE RALEIGH MILK TRANSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- UNION HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- GREENVILLE SCHOOL (CLOSED)Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MAINTENANCE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- THE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- FORMER UNION 76 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MAIN STREET EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MONROE COUNTY SCHOOLS - BUS GARAGEBrownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Union'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 Union.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of Union
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Union
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Union
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Union, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Union. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Union
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 Union average
Your land is one point inside Union
Everything above resolves to Union as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 286 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 Union Average
Union Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Union
- ●One soil character for all of Union
- ●Frost dates read at Union's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Union's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Union
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Union, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Union averages can't show:
We read public map data around Union — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Union average
How we know this about Union
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 Union’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 Union
When does frost risk typically end in Union?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Union typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Union?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Union typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Union?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Union sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 8, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Union?
The federal record around Union shows 87 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Union?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Union's scale — its 6b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Union'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 Union’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Union's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 286 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Union's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Union's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 22 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Union, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Union's boundary and the 286 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Union's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Union 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 Union's 286 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Union's 286 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Union you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 286 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 Union-wide figureread your own land →
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