Barclay, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Barclay, 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 Barclay 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 Barclay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Barclay — the short answer
Barclay, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 253 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 253 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 Barclay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barclay's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barclay
Each reading below is measured for Barclay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBarclay runs about 226 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
MeasuredBarclay 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 Barclay is in
Barclay sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Barclay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Queen Anne's County.
What Grows in Barclay
Every plant below cleared Barclay's own zone 7b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barclay?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Barclay
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Barclay, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Barclay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barclay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QA Cg 1Nitrate · 600 ft
- REEB MILLWORK BARCLAY FINISHBrownfields · 1100 ft
- VIILAGE VIEW FARMCAFO · 1500 ft
- Barclay Depot, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Delmarva Sash & Door CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- H.D. MYLES FARM/BARCLAY (NEW CONSTRUCTION)CAFO · 0.9 mi
- E. KEITH BOSTIC/PLEASANT VIEW FARMCAFO · 0.9 mi
- CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT FARMCAFO · 1.0 mi
- CHRIS LESNIOWSKICAFO · 1.2 mi
- Twin Walnut FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- QA Cg 67Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- Gibson Farm EquipmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barclay'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 Barclay.
Total Sites
341
within ~10 miles of Barclay
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barclay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barclay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barclay, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Barclay — CAFO (47 sites) and Nitrate (182 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Barclay
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 Barclay average
Your land is one point inside Barclay
Everything above resolves to Barclay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 253 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 Barclay Average
Barclay Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Barclay
- ●One soil character for all of Barclay
- ●Frost dates read at Barclay's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barclay's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barclay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barclay, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barclay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barclay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barclay average
How we know this about Barclay
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 Barclay’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 Barclay
When does frost risk typically end in Barclay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barclay typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Barclay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barclay typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barclay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barclay sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 26, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barclay?
The federal record around Barclay is a meaningful one — 341 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (182), the nearest Nitrate 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 Barclay?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barclay's scale — its 7b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barclay'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 Barclay’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Barclay's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 253 acres it covers and 341 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barclay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Barclay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 9 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 341 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barclay, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barclay's boundary and the 253 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Barclay's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Barclaylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Barclay's 253 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Queen Anne's County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Queen Anne's 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 Queen Anne's County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barclay's 253 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barclay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 253 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Barclay-wide figureread your own land →