Garrison, 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 Garrison, 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 Garrison 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 Garrison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Garrison — the short answer
Garrison, Maryland: USDA zone 7a, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- 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 7a is Garrison's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garrison's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garrison
Each reading below is measured for Garrison itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGarrison runs about 230 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
MeasuredGarrison 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 Garrison is in
Garrison sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Garrison's own centroid rather than borrowed from Baltimore County.
What Grows in Garrison
Every plant below cleared Garrison's own zone 7a and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Garrison?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Garrison
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Garrison, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Garrison
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garrison. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NATIONAL TIRE & BATTERY #8582Brownfields · 700 ft
- TESLA OWINGS MILLS SSDCBrownfields · 700 ft
- HERITAGE AUTO BODYBrownfields · 800 ft
- Allstate LeasingUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- PROFESSIONAL PHARMACY SERVICES - OWINGS MILLSBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Valley BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CLEARWAY PAIN SOLUTIONSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CROSSROADS CLEANERSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- ECONO LUBE N TUNE NO 166Brownfields · 2200 ft
- FUSSY FOLKS CLEANERSBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Garrison Fire StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Garrison Fire DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garrison'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 Garrison.
Total Sites
2,541
within ~10 miles of Garrison
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Garrison
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garrison
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Garrison
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 Garrison average
Your land is one point inside Garrison
Everything above resolves to Garrison 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 Garrison Average
Garrison Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Garrison
- ●One soil character for all of Garrison
- ●Frost dates read at Garrison's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garrison's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garrison
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garrison, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garrison averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garrison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garrison average
How we know this about Garrison
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 Garrison’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 Garrison
When does frost risk typically end in Garrison?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garrison typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Garrison?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garrison typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Garrison?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garrison sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 29, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garrison?
The federal record around Garrison is a meaningful one — 2,541 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,281), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Garrison?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Garrison's scale — its 7a band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garrison'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 Garrison’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Garrison's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,021 acres it covers and 2,541 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garrison's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Garrison's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 12 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,541 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garrison, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garrison's boundary and the 2,021 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Garrison's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Garrisonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Garrison's 2,021 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baltimore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baltimore 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 Baltimore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Garrison's 2,021 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garrison you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,021 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Garrison-wide figureread your own land →
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