Gapland, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Gapland, 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 Gapland 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 Gapland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gapland — the short answer
Gapland, Maryland: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 143 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 143 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 7a is Gapland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gapland's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gapland
Each reading below is measured for Gapland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGapland runs about 214 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
MeasuredGapland sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Gapland is in
Gapland sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gapland's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Washington County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gapland
Every plant below cleared Gapland's own zone 7a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gapland?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Gapland
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Gapland, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gapland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gapland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DWIGHT BRANDENBURG/BRANDENBURG FAMILY LIMITED PARTNERSHIPCAFO · 1.3 mi
- George J. KarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Horsey Distillery FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- FR Eb 8Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- K & M GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Old Keedysville Train StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- FR Eb 3Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- WA Di 5Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- Millbrook MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- FR Eb 5Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- Huffer & HufferUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- FR Eb 1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gapland'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 Gapland.
Total Sites
611
within ~10 miles of Gapland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gapland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gapland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gapland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gapland — Nitrate (394 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Gapland
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 Gapland average
Your land is one point inside Gapland
Everything above resolves to Gapland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 143 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 Gapland Average
Gapland Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Gapland
- ●One soil character for all of Gapland
- ●Frost dates read at Gapland's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gapland's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gapland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gapland, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gapland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gapland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gapland average
How we know this about Gapland
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 Gapland’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 Gapland
When does frost risk typically end in Gapland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gapland typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Gapland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gapland typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gapland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gapland sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 20, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gapland?
The federal record around Gapland is a meaningful one — 611 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (394), the nearest CAFO record about 1.3 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 Gapland?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gapland's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gapland'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 Gapland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gapland's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 143 acres it covers and 611 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gapland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gapland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 3 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 611 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gapland, the closest CAFO record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gapland's boundary and the 143 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gapland sits in the Blue Ridge — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gaplandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gapland's 143 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gapland's 143 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gapland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 143 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 1.3 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 Gapland-wide figureread your own land →