Anne Arundel County, in Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Anne Arundel County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Anne Arundel County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Anne Arundel County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Anne Arundel County — the short answer
Anne Arundel County, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 265K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 265K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Anne Arundel County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Anne Arundel County's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Anne Arundel County
Across a year, Anne Arundel County accumulates about 3,937 growing degree days above 50°F, about 73 more than the middle Maryland county — ahead of 16 of Maryland’s 24 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Anne Arundel County
Across Anne Arundel County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Annapolis, Marr, and Dodon are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.7–5.4, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
14%
Hydric soils
13%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Anne Arundel County
The USDA soil survey maps 50% of Anne Arundel County as well drained — but another 43% drains differently: 13% somewhat excessively drained, 11% moderately well drained.
Annapolis is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Marr (9%) and Dodon (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Anne Arundel County
Each reading below is measured for Anne Arundel County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Anne Arundel County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Anne Arundel County runs about pH 4.7–5.4, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredAnne Arundel County runs about 258 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
MeasuredAnne Arundel County 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 Anne Arundel County is in
Anne Arundel County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (94%) and Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain (6%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Anne Arundel County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Anne Arundel County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 258-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile.
Is it too late to plant in Anne Arundel County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Anne Arundel County
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Anne Arundel County, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle28 documented records
- monarch butterfly378 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Anne Arundel County
USGS estimates 8,176 lb of Glyphosate on Anne Arundel County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (5,846 lb) and Metolachlor-s (4,928 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Anne Arundel County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Anne Arundel County — 2,402 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 16 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Anne Arundel County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Anne Arundel County
Closest first, across Anne Arundel County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- American Truck & Bus, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- STAPLES THE OFFICE SUPERSTORE EATS, INC #0689Brownfields · 2100 ft
- SAFEWAY STORE #2629Brownfields · 2100 ft
- ANNAPOLIS ZIEBART BODYSHOPBrownfields · 2100 ft
- CRISWELL COLLISION CENTERBrownfields · 2200 ft
- BATTERIES PLUS BULBSBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Katcef Brothers, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- AA De 3Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- BROAD CREEKPFAS · 0.5 mi
- AA De 2Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- AA De 47Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- Jones of Annapolis, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Anne Arundel County'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 Anne Arundel County.
Sources Checked
across Anne Arundel County
Severity Distribution
across Anne Arundel County
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 Anne Arundel County
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 Anne Arundel County average
Your land is one point inside Anne Arundel County
Everything above resolves to Anne Arundel County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 265K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Anne Arundel County Average
Anne Arundel County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Anne Arundel County
- ●One soil character for all of Anne Arundel County
- ●Frost dates read at Anne Arundel County's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Anne Arundel County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Anne Arundel County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Anne Arundel County, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Anne Arundel County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Anne Arundel County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Anne Arundel County average
How we know this about Anne Arundel County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Anne Arundel County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Anne Arundel County
When does frost risk typically end in Anne Arundel County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Anne Arundel County typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
How long is the growing season in Anne Arundel County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Anne Arundel County sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 16, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Anne Arundel County?
The federal record around Anne Arundel County runs heavier than most — 2,402 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,145), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Anne Arundel County's scale — its 7b band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Anne Arundel County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Maryland's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Anne Arundel County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Anne Arundel County's own scale — its own ~258-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 2,402 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Anne Arundel County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Anne Arundel County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Anne Arundel CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 2,402 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Anne Arundel County's boundary and the 265,477 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Anne Arundel County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Anne Arundel County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Anne Arundel County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Maryland grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Maryland
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Anne Arundel County — the ~258 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Anne Arundel County's 265,477 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 2,402 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Anne Arundel Countyread your own land →