Breathedsville, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Breathedsville, 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 Breathedsville 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 Breathedsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Breathedsville — the short answer
Breathedsville, Maryland: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 238 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 238 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 Breathedsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Breathedsville's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Breathedsville
Each reading below is measured for Breathedsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBreathedsville runs about 212 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
MeasuredBreathedsville 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 Breathedsville is in
Breathedsville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Breathedsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Breathedsville
Every plant below cleared Breathedsville's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Breathedsville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Breathedsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Breathedsville, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Breathedsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Breathedsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WA Ci 86Nitrate · 1100 ft
- The Feed BinUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WA Ci 16Nitrate · 1700 ft
- WA Ci 38Nitrate · 2400 ft
- AC&T LappansUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- May's Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Hollins Associates, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- S. Donald D'AlfonzoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MCI Wastewater Treatment PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ROXBURY CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Hagerstown Prison Complex AKA Maryland Correctional InstituteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MARYLAND CORRECTIONAL FACILITY WWTFBrownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Breathedsville'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 Breathedsville.
Total Sites
1,121
within ~10 miles of Breathedsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Breathedsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Breathedsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Breathedsville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 346 sites within ~10 miles of Breathedsville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Breathedsville
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 Breathedsville average
Your land is one point inside Breathedsville
Everything above resolves to Breathedsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 238 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 Breathedsville Average
Breathedsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Breathedsville
- ●One soil character for all of Breathedsville
- ●Frost dates read at Breathedsville's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Breathedsville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Breathedsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Breathedsville, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Breathedsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Breathedsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Breathedsville average
How we know this about Breathedsville
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 Breathedsville’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 Breathedsville
When does frost risk typically end in Breathedsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Breathedsville typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Breathedsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Breathedsville typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Breathedsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Breathedsville sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 20, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Breathedsville?
The federal record around Breathedsville is a meaningful one — 1,121 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (428), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Breathedsville?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Breathedsville's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Breathedsville'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 Breathedsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Breathedsville's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 238 acres it covers and 1,121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Breathedsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Breathedsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 3 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Breathedsville, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Breathedsville's boundary and the 238 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Breathedsville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Breathedsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Breathedsville's 238 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Breathedsville's 238 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Breathedsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 238 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Breathedsville-wide figureread your own land →