Brown Station, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Brown Station, 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 Brown Station 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 Brown Station — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brown Station — the short answer
Brown Station, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- 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
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Brown Station's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brown Station's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brown Station
Each reading below is measured for Brown Station itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrown Station runs about 228 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
MeasuredBrown Station 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 Brown Station is in
Brown Station sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brown Station's own centroid rather than borrowed from Prince George's County.
What Grows in Brown Station
Every plant below cleared Brown Station's own zone 7b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brown Station?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (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 Brown Station
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Brown Station, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brown Station
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brown Station. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Substation 122Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PG De 21Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Brown Station LandfillUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BROWN STATION ROAD SANITARY LANDFILLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- PG De 20Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Divine Peace Lutheran ChurchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Central MD Research & Education Center- Upper MarlboroUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Riverdale Baptist ChurchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Largo Landing Fellowship HouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Bowie Trucking Service, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DR. HENRY A. WISE JR. HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Randall Farm Maintenance FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brown Station'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 Brown Station.
Total Sites
1,865
within ~10 miles of Brown Station
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brown Station
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brown Station
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 Brown Station
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 Brown Station average
Your land is one point inside Brown Station
Everything above resolves to Brown Station as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Brown Station Average
Brown Station Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Brown Station
- ●One soil character for all of Brown Station
- ●Frost dates read at Brown Station's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brown Station's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brown Station
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brown Station, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brown Station averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brown Station — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brown Station average
How we know this about Brown Station
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 Brown Station’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 Brown Station
When does frost risk typically end in Brown Station?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brown Station typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Brown Station?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brown Station 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 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brown Station?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brown Station sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 26, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brown Station?
The federal record around Brown Station is a meaningful one — 1,865 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (975), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Brown Station?
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 Brown Station's scale — its 7b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brown Station'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 Brown Station’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brown Station's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,947 acres it covers and 1,865 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brown Station's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brown Station's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 9 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,865 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brown Station, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brown Station's boundary and the 3,947 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brown Station's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brown Stationlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brown Station's 3,947 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 Brown Station's 3,947 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brown Station you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,947 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Brown Station-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maryland
Wider growing context
What grows across MarylandBrown Station sits outside our named growing regions, so Maryland as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides