Forestville, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Forestville, 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 Forestville 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 Forestville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Forestville — the short answer
Forestville, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- 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 Forestville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Forestville's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Forestville
Each reading below is measured for Forestville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredForestville runs about 242 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
MeasuredForestville 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 Forestville is in
Forestville sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Forestville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Prince George's County.
What Grows in Forestville
Every plant below cleared Forestville's own zone 7b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Forestville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Forestville
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Forestville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Forestville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Forestville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Branch Electric SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Schmidt Baking Co., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Murphy's Auto Body ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Shell Oil Products Company 219 3265 0209Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MURPHYS AUTO BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Meibel & CohenUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- K-7 CLEANERSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Anaconda Press, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Forestville Healthcare CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Forestville BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Schmit Baking Co., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- EVERGREENE ARCHITECTURAL ARTSBrownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Forestville'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 Forestville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Forestville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Forestville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Forestville, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 57 sites within ~10 miles of Forestville. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Forestville
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 Forestville average
Your land is one point inside Forestville
Everything above resolves to Forestville 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 Forestville Average
Forestville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Forestville
- ●One soil character for all of Forestville
- ●Frost dates read at Forestville's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Forestville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Forestville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Forestville, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Forestville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Forestville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Forestville average
How we know this about Forestville
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 Forestville’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 Forestville
When does frost risk typically end in Forestville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Forestville typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Forestville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Forestville typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Forestville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Forestville sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 4, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Forestville?
The federal record around Forestville is a meaningful one — 3,808 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,045), 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 Forestville?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Forestville's scale — its 7b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Forestville'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 Forestville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Forestville's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,513 acres it covers and 3,808 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Forestville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Forestville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 18 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,808 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Forestville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Forestville's boundary and the 2,513 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Forestville's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Forestvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Forestville's 2,513 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prince George's County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prince George's 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 Prince George's County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Forestville's 2,513 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Forestville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,513 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 Forestville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maryland
Wider growing context
What grows across MarylandForestville sits outside our named growing regions, so Maryland as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides