Valley Bend, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Valley Bend, 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 Valley Bend 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 Valley Bend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Valley Bend — the short answer
Valley Bend, West Virginia: USDA zone 6a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 901 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 901 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 6a is Valley Bend's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valley Bend's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valley Bend
Each reading below is measured for Valley Bend itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValley Bend runs about 178 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
MeasuredValley Bend sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Valley Bend is in
Valley Bend sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Valley Bend's own centroid rather than borrowed from Randolph County.
What Grows in Valley Bend
Every plant below cleared Valley Bend's own zone 6a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valley Bend?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Valley Bend
Survey cells within 31 miles of Valley Bend checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 42 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Valley Bend
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valley Bend. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COUNTRY CONVENIENCE & GENERAL STUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- COASTAL LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DAILEY SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FORMER JESSIE'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LEWIS WHARTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DAILEY LOCATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PAR MAR STORE #46Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- CONCAST METAL PRODS. CO.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6406Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- WVDOH MILL CREEK SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- COLLETTS SERV CNTREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- BOB'S MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valley Bend'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 Valley Bend.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Valley Bend
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valley Bend
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valley Bend
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Valley Bend
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 Valley Bend average
Your land is one point inside Valley Bend
Everything above resolves to Valley Bend as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 901 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 Valley Bend Average
Valley Bend Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Valley Bend
- ●One soil character for all of Valley Bend
- ●Frost dates read at Valley Bend's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valley Bend's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valley Bend
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valley Bend, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valley Bend averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valley Bend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valley Bend average
How we know this about Valley Bend
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 Valley Bend’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 Valley Bend
When does frost risk typically end in Valley Bend?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Bend typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Valley Bend?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Bend typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valley Bend?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valley Bend sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 5, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valley Bend?
The federal record around Valley Bend shows 88 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Valley Bend?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valley Bend's scale — its 6a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valley Bend'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 Valley Bend’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Valley Bend's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 901 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valley Bend's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valley Bend's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 19 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valley Bend, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valley Bend's boundary and the 901 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valley Bend's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Valley Bend 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 Valley Bend's 901 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Randolph County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Randolph 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 Randolph County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valley Bend's 901 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valley Bend you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 901 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 Valley Bend-wide figureread your own land →