Dunkirk, 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.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dunkirk, 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 Dunkirk 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 Dunkirk — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dunkirk — the short answer
Dunkirk, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Dunkirk's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dunkirk's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dunkirk
Each reading below is measured for Dunkirk itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDunkirk runs about 239 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
MeasuredDunkirk 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 Dunkirk is in
Dunkirk sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dunkirk's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calvert County.
What Grows in Dunkirk
Every plant below cleared Dunkirk's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dunkirk?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Dunkirk
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Dunkirk, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dunkirk
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dunkirk. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Helen P. Marsellas T/A Wards GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Wawa Food Market #573Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WAWA FOOD MARKET 573Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- Safeway #1129 Fuel CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SAFEWAY STORE #1129Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- Dunkirk Volunteer Fire Dept. Enginer #5Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- VALVOLINE INSTANT OIL CHANGE BA0021Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- TOWN CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Dunkirk Village Shopping CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Eastern Petroleum CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- VERY BEST CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- S/S#2-1068Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dunkirk'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 Dunkirk.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dunkirk
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dunkirk
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dunkirk, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dunkirk — Superfund (6 sites) and Nitrate (120 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Dunkirk
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 Dunkirk average
Your land is one point inside Dunkirk
Everything above resolves to Dunkirk as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Dunkirk Average
Dunkirk Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Dunkirk
- ●One soil character for all of Dunkirk
- ●Frost dates read at Dunkirk's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dunkirk's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dunkirk
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dunkirk, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dunkirk averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dunkirk — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dunkirk average
How we know this about Dunkirk
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 Dunkirk’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 Dunkirk
When does frost risk typically end in Dunkirk?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dunkirk typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Dunkirk?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dunkirk typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dunkirk?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dunkirk sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 3, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dunkirk?
The federal record around Dunkirk is a meaningful one — 433 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (218), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Dunkirk?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dunkirk's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dunkirk'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 Dunkirk’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dunkirk's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,215 acres it covers and 433 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dunkirk's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dunkirk's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 17 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 433 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dunkirk, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dunkirk's boundary and the 4,215 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dunkirk's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dunkirklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dunkirk's 4,215 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calvert County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calvert 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 Calvert County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dunkirk's 4,215 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dunkirk you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,215 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Dunkirk-wide figureread your own land →
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