Selma, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Selma, 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 Selma 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 Selma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Selma — the short answer
Selma, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 278 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- 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
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 278 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 Selma's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Selma's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Selma
Each reading below is measured for Selma itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSelma runs about 217 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
MeasuredSelma 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 Selma is in
Selma sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Selma's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alleghany County.
What Grows in Selma
Every plant below cleared Selma's own zone 7a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Selma?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (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 Selma
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Selma, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Selma
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Selma. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- G.J. KIMBERLINUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- C C COFFEY - EXCAVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Dabney S Lancaster Community CollegeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KIM-STAN LANDFILLSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- CSX Clifton Forge YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CSX TRANSPORTATION, INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- VA0073Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ALLEGHANY COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- East Coast Petroleum IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Clifton Tire & Auto Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- RIDGEWAY TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- EAST COAST OIL #11Brownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Selma'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 Selma.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Selma
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Selma
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Selma, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 139 sites within ~10 miles of Selma. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Selma
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 Selma average
Your land is one point inside Selma
Everything above resolves to Selma as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 278 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 Selma Average
Selma Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Selma
- ●One soil character for all of Selma
- ●Frost dates read at Selma's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Selma's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Selma
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Selma, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Selma averages can't show:
We read public map data around Selma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Selma average
How we know this about Selma
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 Selma’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 Selma
When does frost risk typically end in Selma?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Selma typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Selma?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Selma 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 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Selma?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Selma sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 21, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Selma?
The federal record around Selma is a meaningful one — 185 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (139), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Selma?
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 Selma's scale — its 7a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Selma'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 Selma’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Selma's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 278 acres it covers and 185 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Selma's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Selma's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 4 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 185 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Selma, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Selma's boundary and the 278 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Selma's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Selmalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Selma's 278 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alleghany County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alleghany 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 Alleghany County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Selma's 278 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Selma you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 278 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 Selma-wide figureread your own land →
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