Friendsville, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Friendsville, 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 Friendsville 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 Friendsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Friendsville — the short answer
Friendsville, Maryland: USDA zone 6a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 640 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 640 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 6a is Friendsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Friendsville's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Friendsville
Each reading below is measured for Friendsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFriendsville runs about 183 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFriendsville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Friendsville is in
Friendsville sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Friendsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Garrett County.
What Grows in Friendsville
Every plant below cleared Friendsville's own zone 6a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Friendsville?
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 Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Friendsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Friendsville, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Friendsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Friendsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Humberson's Maxco Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- DEMAREE INFLATABLE BOATSBrownfields · 450 ft
- Auto CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Muse GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- VanSickles GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- BFS Foods, Inc. #73Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Friendsville CDO (31070)Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MDOT SHA BRIDGE # 1101100Brownfields · 900 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #22213Brownfields · 1000 ft
- Blain Frantz, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MDOT SHA BRIDGE # 1103804Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- MDOT SHA BRIDGE # 1103803Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Friendsville'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 Friendsville.
Total Sites
145
within ~10 miles of Friendsville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Friendsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Friendsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Friendsville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Friendsville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Friendsville
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 Friendsville average
Your land is one point inside Friendsville
Everything above resolves to Friendsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 640 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 Friendsville Average
Friendsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Friendsville
- ●One soil character for all of Friendsville
- ●Frost dates read at Friendsville's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Friendsville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Friendsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Friendsville, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Friendsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Friendsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Friendsville average
How we know this about Friendsville
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 Friendsville’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 Friendsville
When does frost risk typically end in Friendsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Friendsville typically lands around Apr 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 May 13.
When is the first frost in Friendsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Friendsville typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Friendsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Friendsville sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 8, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Friendsville?
The federal record around Friendsville shows 145 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Friendsville?
From about Sep 22 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 Oct 22 (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 Oct 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Friendsville's scale — its 6a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Friendsville'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 Friendsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Friendsville's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 640 acres it covers and 145 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Friendsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Friendsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 22 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 145 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Friendsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Friendsville's boundary and the 640 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Friendsville's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Friendsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Friendsville's 640 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Garrett County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Garrett 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 Garrett County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Friendsville's 640 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Friendsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 640 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Friendsville-wide figureread your own land →
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