Delmar, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Delmar, 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 Delmar 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 Delmar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Delmar — the short answer
Delmar, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Delmar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Delmar's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Delmar
Each reading below is measured for Delmar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDelmar runs about 229 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
MeasuredDelmar 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 Delmar is in
Delmar sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Delmar's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wicomico County.
What Grows in Delmar
Every plant below cleared Delmar's own zone 7b and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Delmar?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Delmar
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Delmar, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Delmar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Delmar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Allied WasteUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BROWNING-FERRISBrownfields · 550 ft
- WI Bf 67Nitrate · 900 ft
- G & M Sales Of DelmarvaUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WI Bf 65Nitrate · 1200 ft
- WI Bf 66Nitrate · 1300 ft
- Bergey's Truck CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Former Wicomico Construction Co., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Barr FreightlinerUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BARR TRANSPORTATION CENTERBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- HANES AUTO & TRUCK CLINICBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Delmar Food ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Delmar'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 Delmar.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Delmar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Delmar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Delmar, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 71 sites within ~10 miles of Delmar. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Delmar
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 Delmar average
Your land is one point inside Delmar
Everything above resolves to Delmar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Delmar Average
Delmar Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Delmar
- ●One soil character for all of Delmar
- ●Frost dates read at Delmar's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Delmar's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Delmar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Delmar, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Delmar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Delmar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Delmar average
How we know this about Delmar
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 Delmar’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 Delmar
When does frost risk typically end in Delmar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Delmar typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Delmar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Delmar typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Delmar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Delmar sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 27, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Delmar?
The federal record around Delmar is a meaningful one — 1,034 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (499), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Delmar?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Delmar's scale — its 7b band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Delmar'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 Delmar’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Delmar's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,080 acres it covers and 1,034 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Delmar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Delmar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 10 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,034 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Delmar, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Delmar's boundary and the 1,080 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Delmar's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Delmarlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Delmar's 1,080 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wicomico County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wicomico 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 Wicomico County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Delmar's 1,080 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Delmar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,080 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Delmar-wide figureread your own land →