Dames Quarter, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dames Quarter, 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 Dames Quarter 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 Dames Quarter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dames Quarter — the short answer
Dames Quarter, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 8a is Dames Quarter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dames Quarter's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dames Quarter
Each reading below is measured for Dames Quarter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDames Quarter runs about 265 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
MeasuredDames Quarter 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 Dames Quarter is in
Dames Quarter sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dames Quarter's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Dames Quarter
Every plant below cleared Dames Quarter's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dames Quarter?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Nov 30 — 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 Dames Quarter
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Dames Quarter, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dames Quarter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dames Quarter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bob's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Deal Island Marine Hardware, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Lucky's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Ronald Wilson PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- SO Bb 1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- Scott's Cove MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Island Seafood, Inc. - Deal IslandUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- empty lotUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Whites MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- MONIE BAY FARMS INCORPORATEDCAFO · 4.0 mi
- Arby's General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- LESSIG & MADISON BROOKE FARMCAFO · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dames Quarter'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 Dames Quarter.
Total Sites
59
within ~10 miles of Dames Quarter
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
18 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dames Quarter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dames Quarter
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dames Quarter, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Dames Quarter. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Dames Quarter
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 Dames Quarter average
Your land is one point inside Dames Quarter
Everything above resolves to Dames Quarter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Dames Quarter Average
Dames Quarter Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Dames Quarter
- ●One soil character for all of Dames Quarter
- ●Frost dates read at Dames Quarter's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dames Quarter's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dames Quarter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dames Quarter, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dames Quarter averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dames Quarter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dames Quarter average
How we know this about Dames Quarter
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 Dames Quarter’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 Dames Quarter
When does frost risk typically end in Dames Quarter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dames Quarter 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.
When is the first frost in Dames Quarter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dames Quarter typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dames Quarter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dames Quarter sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 16, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dames Quarter?
The federal record around Dames Quarter shows 59 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dames Quarter?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dames Quarter's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dames Quarter'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 Dames Quarter’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dames Quarter's own scale — its own ~265-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,601 acres it covers and 59 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dames Quarter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dames Quarter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 30 and the ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 59 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dames Quarter, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dames Quarter's boundary and the 7,601 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dames Quarter's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dames Quarterlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dames Quarter's 7,601 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dames Quarter's 7,601 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dames Quarter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,601 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Dames Quarter-wide figureread your own land →