Talbot County, in Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Talbot County lies within Delmarva Peninsula and Tidewater & Chesapeake — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Talbot County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Talbot 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 Talbot County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Talbot County — the short answer
Talbot County, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 172K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 172K 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 8a is Talbot County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Talbot County's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Talbot County
Across a year, Talbot County accumulates about 4,113 growing degree days above 50°F, about 249 more than the middle Maryland county — ahead of every other Maryland county. 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.
Winter banks about 2,385 hours below 45°F. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Talbot County
Across Talbot County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Hambrook, Mattapex, and Elkton are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.7–6.0, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
36%
Hydric soils
32%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Talbot County
The USDA soil survey maps 25% of Talbot County as poorly drained — but another 54% drains differently: 25% well drained, 17% moderately well drained.
Hambrook is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Mattapex (13%) and Elkton (13%).
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 Talbot County
Each reading below is measured for Talbot 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 Talbot County are poorly drained, in hydrologic group C/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Talbot County runs about pH 5.7–6.0, 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
MeasuredTalbot County runs about 270 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTalbot County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Talbot County is in
Talbot County sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Talbot County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Talbot County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 270-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 Talbot County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Talbot County
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Talbot County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly47 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Talbot County
USGS estimates 161,708 lb of Glyphosate on Talbot County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (50,026 lb) and Atrazine (47,662 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 Talbot County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Talbot County — 468 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Talbot County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Talbot County
Closest first, across Talbot County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TA Cc 33Nitrate · 950 ft
- TA Dc 53Nitrate · 2600 ft
- Creek Cove CottageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Shannahan Artesian Well Co., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- High's Dairy Store #95Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Tidal Kitchen & Bath, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Calhoun MEBA Engineering SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- J. Marion Bryan & Sons, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Kastel Brothers Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- St. Michaels SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Haddaway's Automotive, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- T. A. Mohlman - TrustUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Talbot 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 Talbot County.
Total Sites
468
across Talbot County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Talbot County
Severity Distribution
across Talbot County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Talbot County, two things run higher than the national average across Talbot County — CAFO (11 sites) and Nitrate (128 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 Talbot 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 Talbot County average
Your land is one point inside Talbot County
Everything above resolves to Talbot County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 172K 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 Talbot County Average
Talbot County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Talbot County
- ●One soil character for all of Talbot County
- ●Frost dates read at Talbot County's scale: Mar 10 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Talbot County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Talbot County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Talbot County, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Talbot County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Talbot County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Talbot County average
How we know this about Talbot 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 Talbot County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Talbot County
When does frost risk typically end in Talbot County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Talbot County typically lands around Mar 10, 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 Mar 31.
How long is the growing season in Talbot County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Talbot County sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 21, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Talbot County?
The federal record around Talbot County is a meaningful one — 468 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (252), the nearest Nitrate 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.
Everything above is measured at Talbot County's scale — its 8a band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Talbot 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 Talbot County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Talbot County's own scale — its own ~270-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 468 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Talbot County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Talbot County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~270-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Talbot CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 468 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Talbot County's boundary and the 171,876 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Talbot County sitting wholly inside the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Talbot County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Talbot 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 Talbot County — the ~270 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 Talbot County's 171,876 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 468 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 Talbot Countyread your own land →