Aberdeen, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Aberdeen, 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 Aberdeen 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 Aberdeen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Aberdeen — the short answer
Aberdeen, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Aberdeen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Aberdeen's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Aberdeen
Each reading below is measured for Aberdeen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAberdeen runs about 242 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
MeasuredAberdeen 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 Aberdeen is in
Aberdeen sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Aberdeen's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Harford County is mostly Northern Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Aberdeen
Every plant below cleared Aberdeen's own zone 7b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Aberdeen?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Aberdeen
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Aberdeen, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Aberdeen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Aberdeen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CSX (Former Railroad Station)Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ABERDEEN SENIOR HIGH, SOUTH BUILDINGBrownfields · 1200 ft
- UPPER CHESAPEAKE HEALTH ABERDEEN LOCATIONBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Safety First Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BAKERFIELD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1900 ft
- T. N. CunninghamUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ABERDEEN MDL SCHBrownfields · 2100 ft
- MDTA ABERDEEN INTERCHANGEBrownfields · 2200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #16428Brownfields · 2300 ft
- TARGET STORE T1043Brownfields · 2300 ft
- Aberdeen Getty #29812Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Texaco Station MD-139Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Aberdeen'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 Aberdeen.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Aberdeen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Aberdeen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Aberdeen, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Aberdeen. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Aberdeen
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 Aberdeen average
Your land is one point inside Aberdeen
Everything above resolves to Aberdeen as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Aberdeen Average
Aberdeen Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Aberdeen
- ●One soil character for all of Aberdeen
- ●Frost dates read at Aberdeen's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Aberdeen's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Aberdeen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Aberdeen, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Aberdeen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Aberdeen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Aberdeen average
How we know this about Aberdeen
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 Aberdeen’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 Aberdeen
When does frost risk typically end in Aberdeen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Aberdeen typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Aberdeen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Aberdeen typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Aberdeen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Aberdeen sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 6, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Aberdeen?
The federal record around Aberdeen runs heavier than most — 932 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (422), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Aberdeen?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Aberdeen's scale — its 7b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Aberdeen'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 Aberdeen’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Aberdeen's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,456 acres it covers and 932 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Aberdeen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Aberdeen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 20 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 932 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Aberdeen, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Aberdeen's boundary and the 4,456 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Aberdeen sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Aberdeenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Aberdeen's 4,456 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harford County
- The growing challenges every Maryland grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Maryland
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Harford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Aberdeen's 4,456 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Aberdeen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,456 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 Aberdeen-wide figureread your own land →