Melfa, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Melfa, 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 Melfa 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 Melfa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Melfa — the short answer
Melfa, Virginia: USDA zone 8a, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 186 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 186 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 8a is Melfa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Melfa's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Melfa
Each reading below is measured for Melfa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMelfa runs about 263 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMelfa sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Melfa is in
Melfa sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Melfa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Accomack County.
What Grows in Melfa
Every plant below cleared Melfa's own zone 8a and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Melfa?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Melfa
Survey cells within 31 miles of Melfa checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 45 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Melfa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Melfa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Doughtys MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Shore Stop #215Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- OPEN LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- KWIK STOP MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Boggs Water & SewageUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MELFA VOL FIRE & RESCUE CO INUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Eastern Shore Community CollegeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- EASTERN SHORE COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- 64K 5Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- Accomack County AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MOREY FARMCAFO · 1.1 mi
- VSP - Area 31 Office - MelfaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Melfa'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 Melfa.
Total Sites
196
within ~10 miles of Melfa
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Melfa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Melfa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Melfa, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 146 sites within ~10 miles of Melfa. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Melfa
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 Melfa average
Your land is one point inside Melfa
Everything above resolves to Melfa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 186 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 Melfa Average
Melfa Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Melfa
- ●One soil character for all of Melfa
- ●Frost dates read at Melfa's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Melfa's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Melfa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Melfa, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Melfa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Melfa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Melfa average
How we know this about Melfa
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 Melfa’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 Melfa
When does frost risk typically end in Melfa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Melfa typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Melfa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Melfa typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Melfa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Melfa sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 16, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Melfa?
The federal record around Melfa shows 196 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (146), 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 Melfa?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Melfa's scale — its 8a band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Melfa'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 Melfa’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Melfa's own scale — its own ~263-day season between 28°F freezes, the 186 acres it covers and 196 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Melfa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Melfa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 30 and the ~263-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 196 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Melfa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Melfa's boundary and the 186 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Melfa's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Melfa 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 Melfa's 186 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Accomack County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Accomack County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Accomack County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Melfa's 186 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Melfa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 186 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 Melfa-wide figureread your own land →