Edgemere, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Edgemere, 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 Edgemere 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 Edgemere — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Edgemere — the short answer
Edgemere, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 272 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~272
- 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 8a is Edgemere's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Edgemere's 272-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Edgemere
Each reading below is measured for Edgemere itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEdgemere 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
MeasuredEdgemere 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 Edgemere is in
Edgemere sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Edgemere's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Baltimore County is mostly Northern Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Edgemere
Every plant below cleared Edgemere'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 Edgemere?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Edgemere
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Edgemere, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Edgemere
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Edgemere. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Atlantis Marina Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- IA CONSTRUCTION CORP - SPARROWS POINTBrownfields · 2200 ft
- LAFARGE BUILDING MATERIAL INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- LAFARGE BUILDING MATERIAL INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- Sparrows Point PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MARYLAND DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION STATE HIGHWAY ADMIN - GREENHILL COVE WWTPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PATAPSCO & BACK RIVERS RAILROADBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- KINDER MORGAN CHESAPEAKE BULK - SPARROWS POINTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Sparrows Point Concrete PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC - DCA1Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- Three Ski's LLC dba Markel's Boat YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Severstal Sparrows PointUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Edgemere'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 Edgemere.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Edgemere
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Edgemere
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Edgemere
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 Edgemere average
Your land is one point inside Edgemere
Everything above resolves to Edgemere 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 Edgemere Average
Edgemere Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Edgemere
- ●One soil character for all of Edgemere
- ●Frost dates read at Edgemere's scale: Mar 10 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Edgemere's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Edgemere
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Edgemere, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Edgemere averages can't show:
We read public map data around Edgemere — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Edgemere average
How we know this about Edgemere
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 Edgemere’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 Edgemere
When does frost risk typically end in Edgemere?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Edgemere typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Edgemere?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Edgemere typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 272 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Edgemere?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Edgemere sees about 272 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 23, about 237 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Edgemere?
The federal record around Edgemere runs heavier than most — 2,884 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,312), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Edgemere?
From about Nov 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Edgemere's scale — its 8a band and its 272-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Edgemere'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 Edgemere’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Edgemere's own scale — its own ~272-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,954 acres it covers and 2,884 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Edgemere's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Edgemere's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Dec 7 and the ~272-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,884 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Edgemere, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Edgemere's boundary and the 6,954 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~272-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Edgemere sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Edgemerelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Edgemere's 6,954 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baltimore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baltimore 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 Baltimore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Edgemere's 6,954 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Edgemere you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,954 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 Edgemere-wide figureread your own land →
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