Church Hill, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Church Hill, 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 Church Hill 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 Church Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Church Hill — the short answer
Church Hill, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 460 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 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 460 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 Church Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Church Hill's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Church Hill
Each reading below is measured for Church Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChurch Hill runs about 234 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
MeasuredChurch Hill 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 Church Hill is in
Church Hill sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Church Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Queen Anne's County.
What Grows in Church Hill
Every plant below cleared Church Hill's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Church Hill?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 12 — 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 Church Hill
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Church Hill, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Church Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Church Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- North & South Pump StationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Clabber Hill Country Furniture, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Niporama Inc. T/A Rhodes StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Church Hill Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- C. L. Bennett Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ROLANDS AUTO CENTERBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Roland's Auto CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Hurlock PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Church Hill Volunteer Fire CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- QA Cf 79Nitrate · 2100 ft
- Town of Church HillUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- QA Cf 78Nitrate · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Church Hill'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 Church Hill.
Total Sites
493
within ~10 miles of Church Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Church Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Church Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Church Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Church Hill — CAFO (40 sites) and Nitrate (224 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Church Hill
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 Church Hill average
Your land is one point inside Church Hill
Everything above resolves to Church Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 460 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 Church Hill Average
Church Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Church Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Church Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Church Hill's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Church Hill's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Church Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Church Hill, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Church Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Church Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Church Hill average
How we know this about Church Hill
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 Church Hill’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 Church Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Church Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Church Hill 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 Church Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Church Hill typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Church Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Church Hill sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 29, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Church Hill?
The federal record around Church Hill is a meaningful one — 493 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (224), 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 Church Hill?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Church Hill's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Church Hill'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 Church Hill’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Church Hill's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 460 acres it covers and 493 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Church Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Church Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 12 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 493 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Church Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Church Hill's boundary and the 460 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Church Hill's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Church Hilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Church Hill's 460 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Queen Anne's County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Queen Anne'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 Queen Anne's County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Church Hill's 460 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Church Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 460 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 Church Hill-wide figureread your own land →