Wardensville, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wardensville, 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 Wardensville 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 Wardensville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wardensville — the short answer
Wardensville, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 207 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- 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
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 207 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 Wardensville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wardensville's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wardensville
Each reading below is measured for Wardensville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWardensville runs about 187 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
MeasuredWardensville 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 Wardensville is in
Wardensville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wardensville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hardy County.
What Grows in Wardensville
Every plant below cleared Wardensville's own zone 6b and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wardensville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Wardensville
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Wardensville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wardensville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wardensville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WARDENSVILLE ELEM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- DAOE'S SPORT CIRCLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ARNETTT W & SUSAN A BENNETTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WARDENSVILLE PHARMACYBrownfields · 750 ft
- WARDENSVILLE 7-11Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HOTT & MILLER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- REYMANN MEMORIAL FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- RUDY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WARDENSVILLE CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FORMER LOCATION OF TIM'S GARAGE & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1700 ft
- KERR'S SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6178Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wardensville'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 Wardensville.
Total Sites
48
within ~10 miles of Wardensville
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wardensville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wardensville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wardensville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Wardensville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Wardensville
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 Wardensville average
Your land is one point inside Wardensville
Everything above resolves to Wardensville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 207 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 Wardensville Average
Wardensville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wardensville
- ●One soil character for all of Wardensville
- ●Frost dates read at Wardensville's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wardensville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wardensville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wardensville, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wardensville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wardensville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wardensville average
How we know this about Wardensville
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 Wardensville’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 Wardensville
When does frost risk typically end in Wardensville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wardensville typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Wardensville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wardensville 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 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wardensville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wardensville sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 8, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wardensville?
The federal record around Wardensville is light — 48 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Wardensville?
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 Wardensville's scale — its 6b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wardensville'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 Wardensville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wardensville's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 207 acres it covers and 48 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wardensville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wardensville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 22 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 48 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wardensville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wardensville's boundary and the 207 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wardensville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wardensvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wardensville's 207 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hardy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hardy 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 Hardy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wardensville's 207 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wardensville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 207 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 Wardensville-wide figureread your own land →
More in West Virginia
Growing region
Nearby growing guides