Baltimore, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Baltimore, 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 Baltimore 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 Baltimore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Baltimore — the short answer
Baltimore, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 52K acres of city.
- 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 52K 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 Baltimore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baltimore's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baltimore
Each reading below is measured for Baltimore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBaltimore runs about 260 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
MeasuredBaltimore 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 Baltimore is in
Baltimore sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Baltimore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Baltimore city.
What Grows in Baltimore
Every plant below cleared Baltimore's own zone 8a and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baltimore?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Baltimore
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Baltimore, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Baltimore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baltimore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ATTISUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Baltimore City Central Booking and Intake CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BALTIMORE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT (EAGER STREET ACADEMY)Brownfields · 450 ft
- Chesapeake Detention FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Maryland PenitentiaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BALTIMORE CITY DETENTION CTRBrownfields · 800 ft
- Vacant Baltimore Sun Bldg.Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- MARYLAND STATE HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION - HEADQUARTER OFFICEBrownfields · 950 ft
- Maryland Reception & Diagnostic CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HUGHES FURNITURE SERVICE INC.Brownfields · 1100 ft
- R.E. Michel Company, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GREENMOUNT PROPERTYBrownfields · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baltimore'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 Baltimore.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baltimore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baltimore
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Baltimore
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 Baltimore average
Your land is one point inside Baltimore
Everything above resolves to Baltimore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 52K 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 Baltimore Average
Baltimore Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Baltimore
- ●One soil character for all of Baltimore
- ●Frost dates read at Baltimore's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baltimore's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baltimore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baltimore, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baltimore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baltimore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baltimore average
How we know this about Baltimore
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 Baltimore’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 Baltimore
When does frost risk typically end in Baltimore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baltimore 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 Baltimore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baltimore typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baltimore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baltimore sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 13, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baltimore?
The federal record around Baltimore runs heavier than most — 5,425 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,586), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Baltimore?
From about Oct 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 Nov 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Baltimore's scale — its 8a band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baltimore'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 Baltimore’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Baltimore's own scale — its own ~260-day season between 28°F freezes, the 51,805 acres it covers and 5,425 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baltimore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baltimore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 27 and the ~260-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,425 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baltimore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baltimore's boundary and the 51,805 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Baltimore's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Baltimorelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Baltimore's 51,805 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baltimore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baltimore 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 Baltimore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baltimore's 51,805 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baltimore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 51,805 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Baltimore-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maryland
Growing region
Nearby growing guides