Easton, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Easton, 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 Easton 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 Easton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Easton — the short answer
Easton, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Easton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Easton's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Easton
Each reading below is measured for Easton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEaston runs about 256 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
MeasuredEaston 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 Easton is in
Easton sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Easton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Talbot County.
What Grows in Easton
Every plant below cleared Easton's own zone 7b and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Easton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Easton
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Easton, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Easton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Easton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Former Piersons Comfort GroupUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- JIFFY LUBE EASTONBrownfields · 750 ft
- Easton Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Asbury PlaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Universal Easton/US Deli Market, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Cornerstone Christian FellowshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Swann's Tire Center, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Former Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Dover East OfficesUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Easton Wholesale Co. Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- COLONIAL CLEANERSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Eleanor C. TowersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Easton'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 Easton.
Total Sites
469
within ~10 miles of Easton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Easton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Easton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Easton, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 27 sites within ~10 miles of Easton. 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 Easton
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 Easton average
Your land is one point inside Easton
Everything above resolves to Easton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Easton Average
Easton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Easton
- ●One soil character for all of Easton
- ●Frost dates read at Easton's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Easton's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Easton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Easton, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Easton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Easton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Easton average
How we know this about Easton
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 Easton’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 Easton
When does frost risk typically end in Easton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Easton typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Easton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Easton typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Easton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Easton sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 13, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Easton?
The federal record around Easton is a meaningful one — 469 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (244), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Easton?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Easton's scale — its 7b band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Easton'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 Easton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Easton's own scale — its own ~256-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,342 acres it covers and 469 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Easton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Easton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 27 and the ~256-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 469 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Easton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Easton's boundary and the 7,342 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Easton's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Eastonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Easton's 7,342 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Talbot County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Talbot 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 Talbot County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Easton's 7,342 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Easton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,342 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Easton-wide figureread your own land →