Darnestown, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Darnestown, 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 Darnestown 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 Darnestown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Darnestown — the short answer
Darnestown, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 Darnestown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Darnestown's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Darnestown
Each reading below is measured for Darnestown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDarnestown runs about 224 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
MeasuredDarnestown 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 Darnestown is in
Darnestown sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Darnestown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Darnestown
Every plant below cleared Darnestown's own zone 7b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Darnestown?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Darnestown
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Darnestown, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Darnestown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Darnestown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Valley Mill CampUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MONTGOMERY COUNTY DOT BRIDGE M-0028Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- Bretton Woods Recreation CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MO Dd 28Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- The Windsor SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HARRIS TEETER #325Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- State Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SECCO CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- PEH, LLC #806Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- State Highway AdministrationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Pooles General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DARNESTOWN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Darnestown'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 Darnestown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Darnestown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Darnestown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Darnestown, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 825 sites within ~10 miles of Darnestown. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Darnestown
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 Darnestown average
Your land is one point inside Darnestown
Everything above resolves to Darnestown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Darnestown Average
Darnestown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Darnestown
- ●One soil character for all of Darnestown
- ●Frost dates read at Darnestown's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Darnestown's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Darnestown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Darnestown, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Darnestown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Darnestown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Darnestown average
How we know this about Darnestown
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 Darnestown’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 Darnestown
When does frost risk typically end in Darnestown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Darnestown typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Darnestown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Darnestown typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Darnestown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Darnestown sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 25, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Darnestown?
The federal record around Darnestown is a meaningful one — 1,699 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (825), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Darnestown?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Darnestown's scale — its 7b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Darnestown'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 Darnestown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Darnestown's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,484 acres it covers and 1,699 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Darnestown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Darnestown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 8 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,699 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Darnestown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Darnestown's boundary and the 10,484 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Darnestown's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Darnestownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Darnestown's 10,484 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 Darnestown's 10,484 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Darnestown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,484 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Darnestown-wide figureread your own land →
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