Brentwood, 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.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brentwood, 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 Brentwood 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 Brentwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brentwood — the short answer
Brentwood, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 246 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 246 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 Brentwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brentwood's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brentwood
Each reading below is measured for Brentwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrentwood runs about 239 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
MeasuredBrentwood 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 Brentwood is in
Brentwood sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brentwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Prince George's County.
What Grows in Brentwood
Every plant below cleared Brentwood's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brentwood?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Brentwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Brentwood, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brentwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brentwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Brentwood Fire Department Co. #4Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- PG Cc 30Nitrate · 450 ft
- RO-COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Northeast Electric CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PROSPERI CO INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- HYATTSVILLE AUTO BODY, INC.Brownfields · 1600 ft
- Capitol Ford Auto BodyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- B & J AUTO SUPPLY INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Government Surplus SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Landmark #3800Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Akaash Properties, LLC T/A Brentwood LibertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brentwood'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 Brentwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brentwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brentwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brentwood, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 73 sites within ~10 miles of Brentwood. 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 Brentwood
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 Brentwood average
Your land is one point inside Brentwood
Everything above resolves to Brentwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 246 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 Brentwood Average
Brentwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Brentwood
- ●One soil character for all of Brentwood
- ●Frost dates read at Brentwood's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brentwood's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brentwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brentwood, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brentwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brentwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brentwood average
How we know this about Brentwood
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 Brentwood’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 Brentwood
When does frost risk typically end in Brentwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brentwood typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Brentwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brentwood typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brentwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brentwood sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 2, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brentwood?
The federal record around Brentwood is a meaningful one — 5,606 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,994), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Brentwood?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brentwood's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brentwood'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 Brentwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brentwood's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 246 acres it covers and 5,606 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brentwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brentwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 16 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,606 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brentwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brentwood's boundary and the 246 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brentwood's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brentwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brentwood's 246 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prince George's County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prince George'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 Prince George's County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brentwood's 246 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brentwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 246 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 Brentwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maryland
Wider growing context
What grows across MarylandBrentwood sits outside our named growing regions, so Maryland as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides