Sedley, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Sedley, 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 Sedley 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 Sedley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sedley — the short answer
Sedley, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7b is Sedley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sedley's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sedley
Each reading below is measured for Sedley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSedley runs about 238 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
MeasuredSedley sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Sedley is in
Sedley sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sedley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Southampton County.
What Grows in Sedley
Every plant below cleared Sedley's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sedley?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Sedley
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sedley checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sedley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sedley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HILLS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WHITLEY PEANUT COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- JOHNSON & ELDER INC - CORN MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- HOLT METAL PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- H.P. BEALE & SONS; INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- FORMER HARRUPS SUPER MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- HELENA AGRI-ENTERPRISES, LLC (D/B/A/ HELENA CHEMICAL COMPANY)Brownfields · 3.4 mi
- LOWE H G (SR )Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- BURGESS TRUCKING CO; INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- HUNTERDALE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- STRICKLANDS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sedley'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 Sedley.
Total Sites
227
within ~10 miles of Sedley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sedley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sedley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sedley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 151 sites within ~10 miles of Sedley. 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 Sedley
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 Sedley average
Your land is one point inside Sedley
Everything above resolves to Sedley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Sedley Average
Sedley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Sedley
- ●One soil character for all of Sedley
- ●Frost dates read at Sedley's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sedley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sedley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sedley, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sedley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sedley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sedley average
How we know this about Sedley
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 Sedley’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 Sedley
When does frost risk typically end in Sedley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sedley typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Sedley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sedley typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sedley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sedley sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 31, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sedley?
The federal record around Sedley is a meaningful one — 227 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (151), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Sedley?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sedley's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sedley'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 Sedley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sedley's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,165 acres it covers and 227 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sedley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sedley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 14 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 227 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sedley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sedley's boundary and the 2,165 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sedley's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sedley 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 Sedley's 2,165 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Southampton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Southampton 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 Southampton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sedley's 2,165 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sedley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,165 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 Sedley-wide figureread your own land →
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