Brunswick, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Brunswick, 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 Brunswick 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 Brunswick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brunswick — the short answer
Brunswick, Maryland: USDA zone 7a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Brunswick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brunswick's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brunswick
Each reading below is measured for Brunswick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrunswick runs about 218 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
MeasuredBrunswick 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 Brunswick is in
Brunswick sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brunswick's own centroid rather than borrowed from Frederick County.
What Grows in Brunswick
Every plant below cleared Brunswick's own zone 7a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brunswick?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Brunswick
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Brunswick, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brunswick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brunswick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cindy Dee RestaurantUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Niningers Auto CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Thurmont PropertiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Herb Daugherty EstateUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- R & R RealtyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Fast Eddie's IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BRUNSWICK WOODWORKINGBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Smith PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- L.S., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Brunswick Volunteer Fire CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CSX TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Brown Property (Vacant Lot-Formerly Gas/Repair Station)Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brunswick'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 Brunswick.
Total Sites
356
within ~10 miles of Brunswick
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brunswick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brunswick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brunswick, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Brunswick — Nitrate (172 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Brunswick
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 Brunswick average
Your land is one point inside Brunswick
Everything above resolves to Brunswick as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 Brunswick Average
Brunswick Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Brunswick
- ●One soil character for all of Brunswick
- ●Frost dates read at Brunswick's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brunswick's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brunswick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brunswick, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brunswick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brunswick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brunswick average
How we know this about Brunswick
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Brunswick’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Brunswick
When does frost risk typically end in Brunswick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brunswick typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Brunswick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brunswick typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brunswick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brunswick sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 21, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brunswick?
The federal record around Brunswick is a meaningful one — 356 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (172), 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 Brunswick?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brunswick's scale — its 7a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brunswick'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 Brunswick’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brunswick's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,096 acres it covers and 356 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brunswick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brunswick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 4 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 356 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brunswick, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brunswick's boundary and the 2,096 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brunswick's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Brunswicklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brunswick's 2,096 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Frederick County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Frederick 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 Frederick County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brunswick's 2,096 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brunswick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,096 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 Brunswick-wide figureread your own land →
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