Germantown, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Germantown, 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 Germantown 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 Germantown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Germantown — the short answer
Germantown, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 11K 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 7b is Germantown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Germantown's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Germantown
Each reading below is measured for Germantown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGermantown runs about 224 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
MeasuredGermantown sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Germantown is in
Germantown sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Germantown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Germantown
Every plant below cleared Germantown's own zone 7b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Germantown?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Germantown
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Germantown, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Germantown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Germantown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SENECA VALLEY HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 700 ft
- Germantown Main Post Office`Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WSSC SENECA WRRFBrownfields · 1200 ft
- JIFFY LUBE STORE NO 1213Brownfields · 1600 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #1880Brownfields · 1600 ft
- 7 ELEVEN STOREBrownfields · 1900 ft
- 7-Eleven #32967Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Former CSX Storage YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SAFEWAY STORE #1579Brownfields · 2000 ft
- PEH, LLC #840Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Sunoco #0747-9843Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- EURO MOTORCARS GERMANTOWN LLCBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Germantown'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 Germantown.
Total Sites
1,306
within ~10 miles of Germantown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Germantown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Germantown
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Germantown
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 Germantown average
Your land is one point inside Germantown
Everything above resolves to Germantown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Germantown Average
Germantown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Germantown
- ●One soil character for all of Germantown
- ●Frost dates read at Germantown's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Germantown's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Germantown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Germantown, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Germantown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Germantown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Germantown average
How we know this about Germantown
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 Germantown’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 Germantown
When does frost risk typically end in Germantown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Germantown typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Germantown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Germantown typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Germantown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Germantown sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 25, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Germantown?
The federal record around Germantown is a meaningful one — 1,306 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (614), 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 Germantown?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Germantown's scale — its 7b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Germantown'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 Germantown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Germantown's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,901 acres it covers and 1,306 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Germantown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Germantown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 8 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,306 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Germantown, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Germantown's boundary and the 10,901 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Germantown's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Germantownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Germantown's 10,901 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Germantown's 10,901 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Germantown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,901 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 Germantown-wide figureread your own land →