Bivalve, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Bivalve, 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 Bivalve 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 Bivalve — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bivalve — the short answer
Bivalve, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 931 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- 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
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 931 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 Bivalve's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bivalve's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bivalve
Each reading below is measured for Bivalve itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBivalve runs about 258 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
MeasuredBivalve 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 Bivalve is in
Bivalve sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bivalve's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wicomico County.
What Grows in Bivalve
Every plant below cleared Bivalve's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bivalve?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Bivalve
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Bivalve, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bivalve
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bivalve. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ANTHONY E. BALCERZAK JR./BIG BIVALVECAFO · 2100 ft
- WEST ACRESCAFO · 2200 ft
- HARRY J. WEST IIICAFO · 0.6 mi
- DOUBLE B FARMCAFO · 0.8 mi
- Pace ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Westside HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Cox's Grocery (Arlie Kiser)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- EARL BEARDSLEY FARMCAFO · 1.9 mi
- THURMAN FARMSCAFO · 2.0 mi
- J.B.J. Inc. T/A Wade's Repair ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Petro PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Ellis Bay Packing Co. Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bivalve'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 Bivalve.
Total Sites
73
within ~10 miles of Bivalve
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bivalve
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bivalve
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bivalve, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Bivalve. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Bivalve
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 Bivalve average
Your land is one point inside Bivalve
Everything above resolves to Bivalve as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 931 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 Bivalve Average
Bivalve Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bivalve
- ●One soil character for all of Bivalve
- ●Frost dates read at Bivalve's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bivalve's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bivalve
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bivalve, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bivalve averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bivalve — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bivalve average
How we know this about Bivalve
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 Bivalve’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 Bivalve
When does frost risk typically end in Bivalve?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bivalve typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Bivalve?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bivalve 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 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bivalve?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bivalve sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 13, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bivalve?
The federal record around Bivalve shows 73 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest CAFO record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bivalve?
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 Bivalve's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bivalve'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 Bivalve’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bivalve's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 931 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bivalve's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bivalve's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 27 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bivalve, the closest CAFO record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bivalve's boundary and the 931 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bivalve's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bivalvelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bivalve's 931 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wicomico County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wicomico 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 Wicomico County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bivalve's 931 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bivalve you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 931 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 0.4 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 Bivalve-wide figureread your own land →