Cottage City, 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.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, 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 Cottage City, 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 Cottage City 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 Cottage City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cottage City — the short answer
Cottage City, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 174 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- 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
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 174 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 Cottage City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cottage City's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cottage City
Each reading below is measured for Cottage City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCottage City 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
MeasuredCottage City 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 Cottage City is in
Cottage City sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cottage City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Prince George's County.
What Grows in Cottage City
Every plant below cleared Cottage City'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 Cottage City?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (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. 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 Cottage City
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Cottage City, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cottage City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cottage City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ENTERPRISE WOODCRAFT & DESIGNBrownfields · 800 ft
- Eubanks Electric Co., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- METROPOLITAN ACCESS CENTERBrownfields · 1000 ft
- WSSC Colmar Manor Pump StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Uhl PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Cottage City VFD Co. 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Parkinson Construction Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Yang's Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Lynn LadderUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Frank Quinn Company IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Service Properties (formerly Service Plus, Inc.)Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MTI Construction ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cottage City'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 Cottage City.
Total Sites
5,596
within ~10 miles of Cottage City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
73 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cottage City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cottage City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cottage City, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 73 sites within ~10 miles of Cottage City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Cottage City
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 Cottage City average
Your land is one point inside Cottage City
Everything above resolves to Cottage City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 174 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 Cottage City Average
Cottage City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Cottage City
- ●One soil character for all of Cottage City
- ●Frost dates read at Cottage City's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cottage City's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cottage City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cottage City, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cottage City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cottage City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cottage City average
How we know this about Cottage City
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 Cottage City’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 Cottage City
When does frost risk typically end in Cottage City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cottage City typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Cottage City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cottage City 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 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cottage City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cottage City sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 2, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cottage City?
The federal record around Cottage City is a meaningful one — 5,596 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,991), the nearest Brownfields 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 Cottage City?
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 Cottage City's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cottage City'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 Cottage City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cottage City's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 174 acres it covers and 5,596 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cottage City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cottage City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 16 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,596 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cottage City, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cottage City's boundary and the 174 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 Cottage City's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cottage Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cottage City's 174 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prince George's County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prince George'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 Prince George's County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cottage City's 174 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cottage City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 174 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Cottage City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maryland
Wider growing context
What grows across MarylandCottage City sits outside our named growing regions, so Maryland as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides