Waverly, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Waverly, 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 Waverly 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 Waverly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Waverly — the short answer
Waverly, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 968 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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
- 968 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 Waverly's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waverly's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waverly
Each reading below is measured for Waverly itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaverly 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
MeasuredWaverly 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 Waverly is in
Waverly sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Waverly's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wood County.
What Grows in Waverly
Every plant below cleared Waverly's own zone 6b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waverly?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Waverly
Survey cells within 31 miles of Waverly checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 53 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Waverly
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waverly. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VACUUM SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- IVS HYDRO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CUSTOM IMAGES LLCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- GOLF CLUB OF WEST VIRGINIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CABOT CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- IVS HYDRO INC - WAVERLY SHOPBrownfields · 1700 ft
- TIM'S COUNTRY STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CABOT CORP. OHIO RIVER PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- UNION WILLIAM PSDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PLEASANTS ENERGY LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SIMEXBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- EGTS - PLEASANTS ENERGY MEASURING AND REGULATING STATIONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waverly'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 Waverly.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waverly
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waverly
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Waverly, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Waverly. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Waverly
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 Waverly average
Your land is one point inside Waverly
Everything above resolves to Waverly as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 968 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 Waverly Average
Waverly Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Waverly
- ●One soil character for all of Waverly
- ●Frost dates read at Waverly's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waverly's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waverly
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waverly, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waverly averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waverly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waverly average
How we know this about Waverly
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 Waverly’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 Waverly
When does frost risk typically end in Waverly?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waverly 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 Waverly?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waverly 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 Waverly?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waverly 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 Waverly?
The federal record around Waverly is a meaningful one — 658 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (327), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Waverly?
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 Waverly's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waverly'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 Waverly’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Waverly's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 968 acres it covers and 658 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waverly's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waverly's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 4 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 658 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waverly, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waverly's boundary and the 968 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Waverly's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Waverly 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 Waverly's 968 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wood 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 Wood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waverly's 968 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waverly you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 968 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 Waverly-wide figureread your own land →