Fort Washington, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Fort Washington, 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 Fort Washington 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 Fort Washington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Washington — the short answer
Fort Washington, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- 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
- ~257
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Fort Washington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Washington's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Washington
Each reading below is measured for Fort Washington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Washington runs about 257 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
MeasuredFort Washington 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 Fort Washington is in
Fort Washington sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Washington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Prince George's County.
What Grows in Fort Washington
Every plant below cleared Fort Washington's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Washington?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Fort Washington
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Fort Washington, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort Washington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Washington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OFFICE OF SPECIAL TECHNOLOGYBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Phillips 66 Co #40473Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Tantallon MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ADVANCE AUTO PARTS #8805Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- WSSC SWAN CREEK WWPSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Ft. Washington Dash-In #209Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Fort Washington BranchUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SHAH PATHOLOGYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Ford Lumber CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Fort Washington Medical CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Dotson Electric CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Jack Winegardner Chev.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Washington'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 Fort Washington.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Washington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Washington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Washington, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 31 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Washington. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Fort Washington
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 Fort Washington average
Your land is one point inside Fort Washington
Everything above resolves to Fort Washington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Fort Washington Average
Fort Washington Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Fort Washington
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Washington
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Washington's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Washington's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Washington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Washington, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Washington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Washington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Washington average
How we know this about Fort Washington
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 Fort Washington’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 Fort Washington
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Washington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Washington typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Fort Washington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Washington 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 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Washington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Washington sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 13, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Washington?
The federal record around Fort Washington runs heavier than most — 2,272 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,227), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Fort Washington?
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 Fort Washington's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Washington'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 Fort Washington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort Washington's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,828 acres it covers and 2,272 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Washington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Washington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 27 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,272 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Washington, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Washington's boundary and the 8,828 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Washington's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fort Washingtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Washington's 8,828 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 Fort Washington's 8,828 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Washington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,828 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Fort Washington-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maryland
Wider growing context
What grows across MarylandFort Washington sits outside our named growing regions, so Maryland as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides