Chestertown, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Chestertown, 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 Chestertown 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 Chestertown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chestertown — the short answer
Chestertown, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 7b is Chestertown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chestertown's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chestertown
Each reading below is measured for Chestertown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChestertown 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
MeasuredChestertown 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 Chestertown is in
Chestertown sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chestertown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kent County.
What Grows in Chestertown
Every plant below cleared Chestertown'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 Chestertown?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 Chestertown
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Chestertown, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chestertown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chestertown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J. Laurance Nicholson & Son, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Southern States Sudlersville Petroleum - Chestertown BranchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Lewes Dairy MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- High Street StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Southern States Coop. Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DIXON VALVE AND COUPLING, INC.Brownfields · 1400 ft
- KE Cd 15Nitrate · 1700 ft
- Royal Farms #250Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SCHLEGEL MARYLAND INCToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- Chestertown BescheUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ELLIOTT AUTO SUPPLY CO INC D.B.A. FACTORY MOTOR PARTS (LOC 370)Brownfields · 1900 ft
- Pardoe's Law & Tree Service, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chestertown'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 Chestertown.
Total Sites
532
within ~10 miles of Chestertown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chestertown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chestertown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chestertown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chestertown — CAFO (20 sites) and Nitrate (328 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 Chestertown
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 Chestertown average
Your land is one point inside Chestertown
Everything above resolves to Chestertown 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 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 Chestertown Average
Chestertown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Chestertown
- ●One soil character for all of Chestertown
- ●Frost dates read at Chestertown's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chestertown's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chestertown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chestertown, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chestertown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chestertown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chestertown average
How we know this about Chestertown
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 Chestertown’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 Chestertown
When does frost risk typically end in Chestertown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chestertown typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Chestertown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chestertown typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chestertown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chestertown sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 3, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chestertown?
The federal record around Chestertown is a meaningful one — 532 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (328), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Chestertown?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chestertown's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chestertown'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 Chestertown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chestertown's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,842 acres it covers and 532 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chestertown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chestertown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 17 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 532 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chestertown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chestertown's boundary and the 1,842 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 Chestertown's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Chestertownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chestertown's 1,842 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kent County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kent 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 Kent County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chestertown's 1,842 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chestertown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,842 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Chestertown-wide figureread your own land →