Fairland, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Fairland, 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 Fairland 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 Fairland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fairland — the short answer
Fairland, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- 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
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Fairland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairland's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairland
Each reading below is measured for Fairland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFairland runs about 240 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
MeasuredFairland 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 Fairland is in
Fairland sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fairland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Fairland
Every plant below cleared Fairland's own zone 7b and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairland?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Fairland
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Fairland, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fairland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Koons Ford (Formerly Castle Ford)Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KOONS OF SILVER SPRINGBrownfields · 1200 ft
- WOODMOOR CLNRSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Herb Gordon OldsmobileUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Sport ChevroletUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SPORT CHEVROLET COMPANY LLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- HERB GORDON VOLVOBrownfields · 1500 ft
- NATIONAL TIRE & BATTERY #7319Brownfields · 1500 ft
- Jiffy LubeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #19005Brownfields · 1600 ft
- Herb Gordon Auto Group DBA NissanUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- EXXONBrownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairland'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 Fairland.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairland
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 Fairland
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 Fairland average
Your land is one point inside Fairland
Everything above resolves to Fairland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Fairland Average
Fairland Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Fairland
- ●One soil character for all of Fairland
- ●Frost dates read at Fairland's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairland's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairland, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairland average
How we know this about Fairland
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 Fairland’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 Fairland
When does frost risk typically end in Fairland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairland typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Fairland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairland 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 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairland sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 3, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairland?
The federal record around Fairland is a meaningful one — 2,825 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,398), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fairland?
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 Fairland's scale — its 7b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairland'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 Fairland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fairland's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,178 acres it covers and 2,825 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fairland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 17 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,825 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairland's boundary and the 3,178 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairland's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fairlandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairland's 3,178 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairland's 3,178 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,178 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fairland-wide figureread your own land →
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