Frenchtown-Rumbly, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Frenchtown-Rumbly, 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 Frenchtown-Rumbly 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 Frenchtown-Rumbly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Frenchtown-Rumbly — the short answer
Frenchtown-Rumbly, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Frenchtown-Rumbly's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Frenchtown-Rumbly's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Frenchtown-Rumbly
Each reading below is measured for Frenchtown-Rumbly itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFrenchtown-Rumbly runs about 264 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
MeasuredFrenchtown-Rumbly 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 Frenchtown-Rumbly is in
Frenchtown-Rumbly sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Frenchtown-Rumbly's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Frenchtown-Rumbly
Every plant below cleared Frenchtown-Rumbly's own zone 8a and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Frenchtown-Rumbly?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Frenchtown-Rumbly
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Frenchtown-Rumbly, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Frenchtown-Rumbly
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Frenchtown-Rumbly. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SO Cc 7Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- Ches. East Co. (Formerly Ford's Grocery)Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- ADAM STANLEY FARMCAFO · 3.9 mi
- Gene-o's General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- SO Dd 47Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- TRELLE E. STERLING/STERLING HILLS FOLLY FARMCAFO · 4.4 mi
- DONALD HOWARD/DONALD HOWARD FARMCAFO · 4.4 mi
- MARSHALL'S SEAFOOD & FARMING INC.CAFO · 4.4 mi
- SO Dc 4Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- Janes Island State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- SO Dc 3Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- Austin Cox Mechanical, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Frenchtown-Rumbly'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 Frenchtown-Rumbly.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Frenchtown-Rumbly
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Frenchtown-Rumbly
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Frenchtown-Rumbly
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Frenchtown-Rumbly, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Frenchtown-Rumbly. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Frenchtown-Rumbly
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 Frenchtown-Rumbly average
Your land is one point inside Frenchtown-Rumbly
Everything above resolves to Frenchtown-Rumbly as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Frenchtown-Rumbly Average
Frenchtown-Rumbly Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Frenchtown-Rumbly
- ●One soil character for all of Frenchtown-Rumbly
- ●Frost dates read at Frenchtown-Rumbly's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Frenchtown-Rumbly's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Frenchtown-Rumbly
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Frenchtown-Rumbly, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Frenchtown-Rumbly averages can't show:
We read public map data around Frenchtown-Rumbly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Frenchtown-Rumbly average
How we know this about Frenchtown-Rumbly
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 Frenchtown-Rumbly’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 Frenchtown-Rumbly
When does frost risk typically end in Frenchtown-Rumbly?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Frenchtown-Rumbly typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Frenchtown-Rumbly?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Frenchtown-Rumbly typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Frenchtown-Rumbly?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Frenchtown-Rumbly sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 16, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Frenchtown-Rumbly?
The federal record around Frenchtown-Rumbly shows 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Frenchtown-Rumbly?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Frenchtown-Rumbly's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Frenchtown-Rumbly'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 Frenchtown-Rumbly’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Frenchtown-Rumbly's own scale — its own ~264-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,405 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Frenchtown-Rumbly's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Frenchtown-Rumbly's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 30 and the ~264-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Frenchtown-Rumbly, the closest Nitrate record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Frenchtown-Rumbly's boundary and the 2,405 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Frenchtown-Rumbly's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Frenchtown-Rumblylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Frenchtown-Rumbly's 2,405 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Frenchtown-Rumbly's 2,405 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Frenchtown-Rumbly you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,405 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.2 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 Frenchtown-Rumbly-wide figureread your own land →