Deal Island, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Deal Island, 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 Deal Island 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 Deal Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deal Island — the short answer
Deal Island, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 272 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~272
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Deal Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deal Island's 272-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deal Island
Each reading below is measured for Deal Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeal Island runs about 272 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
MeasuredDeal Island 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 Deal Island is in
Deal Island sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Deal Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Deal Island
Every plant below cleared Deal Island's own zone 8a and its 272-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deal Island?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Deal Island
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Deal Island, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Deal Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deal Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- empty lotUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SO Bb 1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- Island Seafood, Inc. - Deal IslandUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Ronald Wilson PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Deal Island Marine Hardware, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Scott's Cove MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Arby's General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Lucky's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Bob's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- SO Cc 7Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- Whites MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- MONIE BAY FARMS INCORPORATEDCAFO · 7.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deal Island'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 Deal Island.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Deal Island
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
9 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deal Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deal Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deal Island, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Deal Island. 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 Deal Island
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 Deal Island average
Your land is one point inside Deal Island
Everything above resolves to Deal Island as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Deal Island Average
Deal Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Deal Island
- ●One soil character for all of Deal Island
- ●Frost dates read at Deal Island's scale: Mar 7 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deal Island's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deal Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deal Island, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deal Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deal Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deal Island average
How we know this about Deal Island
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 Deal Island’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 Deal Island
When does frost risk typically end in Deal Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deal Island typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Deal Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deal Island typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 272 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deal Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deal Island sees about 272 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 20, about 237 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deal Island?
The federal record around Deal Island is light — 38 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Deal Island?
From about Nov 4 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 Dec 4 (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 Dec 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deal Island's scale — its 8a band and its 272-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deal Island'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 Deal Island’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Deal Island's own scale — its own ~272-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,940 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deal Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deal Island's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Dec 4 and the ~272-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deal Island, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deal Island's boundary and the 1,940 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~272-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deal Island's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Deal Islandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deal Island's 1,940 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 Deal Island's 1,940 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deal Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,940 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Deal Island-wide figureread your own land →