Greensboro, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Greensboro, 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 Greensboro 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 Greensboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Greensboro — the short answer
Greensboro, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 687 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 687 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 Greensboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Greensboro's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Greensboro
Each reading below is measured for Greensboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreensboro runs about 231 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
MeasuredGreensboro 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 Greensboro is in
Greensboro sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Greensboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Caroline County.
What Grows in Greensboro
Every plant below cleared Greensboro's own zone 7b and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Greensboro?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Greensboro
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Greensboro, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Greensboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Greensboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CO Cd 69Nitrate · 400 ft
- Greensboro CDO MD37114Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BJ Distributing CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Bodie's Dairy MarketsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Fleegle-Helfenbein Funeral HomeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Eagle Auto Salvage Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- State Highway AdministrationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Natuarlal VaidyaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CO Cd 36Nitrate · 2300 ft
- CO Cd 67Nitrate · 2400 ft
- CO Cd 66Nitrate · 2400 ft
- Greensboro Supply, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Greensboro'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 Greensboro.
Total Sites
382
within ~10 miles of Greensboro
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Greensboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Greensboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Greensboro, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Greensboro — CAFO (53 sites) and Nitrate (186 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Greensboro
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 Greensboro average
Your land is one point inside Greensboro
Everything above resolves to Greensboro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 687 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 Greensboro Average
Greensboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Greensboro
- ●One soil character for all of Greensboro
- ●Frost dates read at Greensboro's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Greensboro's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Greensboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Greensboro, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Greensboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Greensboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Greensboro average
How we know this about Greensboro
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 Greensboro’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 Greensboro
When does frost risk typically end in Greensboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Greensboro typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Greensboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Greensboro typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Greensboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Greensboro sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 28, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Greensboro?
The federal record around Greensboro is a meaningful one — 382 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (186), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Greensboro?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Greensboro's scale — its 7b band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Greensboro'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 Greensboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Greensboro's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 687 acres it covers and 382 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Greensboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Greensboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 11 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 382 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Greensboro, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Greensboro's boundary and the 687 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Greensboro's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Greensborolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Greensboro's 687 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Caroline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Caroline 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 Caroline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Greensboro's 687 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Greensboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 687 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Greensboro-wide figureread your own land →