Colesville, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Colesville, 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 Colesville 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 Colesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Colesville — the short answer
Colesville, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Colesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Colesville's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Colesville
Each reading below is measured for Colesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredColesville runs about 237 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
MeasuredColesville 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 Colesville is in
Colesville sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Colesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Colesville
Every plant below cleared Colesville's own zone 7b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Colesville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Colesville
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Colesville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Colesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Colesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Colesville Branch Post OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Hillandale Volunteer Fire Department #24Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DBA RITE AID # 11204Brownfields · 650 ft
- Colesville BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MARVEL CLEANERS NEW HAMPSHIRE AVEBrownfields · 950 ft
- PMG CO19Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SUNOCOBrownfields · 1000 ft
- EXXONBrownfields · 1300 ft
- 27817 Colesville ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- $1.75 DRYCLEAN DIRECT #2Brownfields · 1500 ft
- Giant Landover #152Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GIANT FUEL #152Brownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Colesville'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 Colesville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Colesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Colesville
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 Colesville
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 Colesville average
Your land is one point inside Colesville
Everything above resolves to Colesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Colesville Average
Colesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Colesville
- ●One soil character for all of Colesville
- ●Frost dates read at Colesville's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Colesville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Colesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Colesville, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Colesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Colesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Colesville average
How we know this about Colesville
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 Colesville’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 Colesville
When does frost risk typically end in Colesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Colesville typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Colesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Colesville typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Colesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Colesville sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 2, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Colesville?
The federal record around Colesville is a meaningful one — 3,091 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,652), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Colesville?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Colesville's scale — its 7b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Colesville'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 Colesville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Colesville's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,274 acres it covers and 3,091 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Colesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Colesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 16 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,091 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Colesville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Colesville's boundary and the 3,274 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Colesville's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Colesvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Colesville's 3,274 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Colesville's 3,274 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Colesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,274 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Colesville-wide figureread your own land →
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