Salem, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Salem, 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 Salem 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 Salem — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Salem — the short answer
Salem, Utah: USDA zone 7a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Salem's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Salem's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Salem
Each reading below is measured for Salem itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSalem runs about 204 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
MeasuredSalem 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 Salem is in
Salem sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Salem's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Utah County is mostly Wasatch and Uinta Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Salem
Every plant below cleared Salem's own zone 7a and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Salem?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Salem
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Salem. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAST GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PORTER'S HEATING & AIR CONDITIONINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SALEM CITY LIBRARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- (D- 9- 2)11aaa- 1Nitrate · 1700 ft
- WESTRING INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SALEM CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- NEWAYS INERNATIONALBrownfields · 2100 ft
- OLD GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SALEM CITYPFAS · 0.5 mi
- BUDS FIVE POINT CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CITY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GAS N GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Salem'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 Salem.
Total Sites
389
within ~10 miles of Salem
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Salem
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Salem
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Salem, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Salem — PFAS (6 sites) and CAFO (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Salem
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 Salem average
Your land is one point inside Salem
Everything above resolves to Salem as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 city 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 Salem Average
Salem Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Salem
- ●One soil character for all of Salem
- ●Frost dates read at Salem's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Salem's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Salem
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Salem, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Salem averages can't show:
We read public map data around Salem — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Salem average
How we know this about Salem
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Salem’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Salem
When does frost risk typically end in Salem?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Salem typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Salem?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Salem typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Salem?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Salem sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 14, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Salem?
The federal record around Salem runs heavier than most — 389 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (163), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Salem?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Salem's scale — its 7a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Salem'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 Salem’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Salem's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,740 acres it covers and 389 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Salem's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Salem's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 28 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 389 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Salem, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Salem's boundary and the 7,740 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Salem sits in the Central Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Salem's 7,740 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Utah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Utah County
- The growing challenges every Utah grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Utah
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Utah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Salem's 7,740 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Salem you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,740 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Salem-wide figureread your own land →
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