Cambridge, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Cambridge, 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 Cambridge 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 Cambridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cambridge — the short answer
Cambridge, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Cambridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cambridge's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cambridge
Each reading below is measured for Cambridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCambridge runs about 263 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCambridge 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 Cambridge is in
Cambridge sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cambridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dorchester County.
What Grows in Cambridge
Every plant below cleared Cambridge's own zone 8a and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cambridge?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Cambridge
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Cambridge, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cambridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cambridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cambridge SOC GLC-37397Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Burton PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Cambridge PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- K-2 Beverage BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONALBrownfields · 2100 ft
- CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONALToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- Corner MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- D & J Storage Co., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Cambridge, MD, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- B & W Market (Cambridge Quik Mart)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #23758Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- Dorchester CarpetsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cambridge'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 Cambridge.
Total Sites
346
within ~10 miles of Cambridge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cambridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cambridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cambridge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cambridge — CAFO (19 sites) and Nitrate (120 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cambridge
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 Cambridge average
Your land is one point inside Cambridge
Everything above resolves to Cambridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Cambridge Average
Cambridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cambridge
- ●One soil character for all of Cambridge
- ●Frost dates read at Cambridge's scale: Mar 13 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cambridge's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cambridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cambridge, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cambridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cambridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cambridge average
How we know this about Cambridge
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 Cambridge’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 Cambridge
When does frost risk typically end in Cambridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cambridge typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Cambridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cambridge typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cambridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cambridge sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 17, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cambridge?
The federal record around Cambridge is a meaningful one — 346 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (157), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Cambridge?
From about Nov 1 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 Dec 1 (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 Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cambridge's scale — its 8a band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cambridge'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 Cambridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cambridge's own scale — its own ~263-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,814 acres it covers and 346 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cambridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cambridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Dec 1 and the ~263-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 346 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cambridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cambridge's boundary and the 6,814 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cambridge's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cambridgelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cambridge's 6,814 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dorchester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dorchester 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 Dorchester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cambridge's 6,814 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cambridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,814 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Cambridge-wide figureread your own land →