Highfield-Cascade, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Highfield-Cascade, 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 Highfield-Cascade 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 Highfield-Cascade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Highfield-Cascade — the short answer
Highfield-Cascade, Maryland: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Highfield-Cascade's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Highfield-Cascade's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Highfield-Cascade
Each reading below is measured for Highfield-Cascade itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHighfield-Cascade runs about 212 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
MeasuredHighfield-Cascade 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 Highfield-Cascade is in
Highfield-Cascade sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Highfield-Cascade'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 Highfield-Cascade
Every plant below cleared Highfield-Cascade's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Highfield-Cascade?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Highfield-Cascade
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Highfield-Cascade, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Highfield-Cascade
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Highfield-Cascade. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WA Al 8Nitrate · 250 ft
- WA Al 9Nitrate · 800 ft
- WA Al 1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- WA Al 10Nitrate · 1200 ft
- Fort RitchieUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WA Al 11Nitrate · 1900 ft
- WA Al 7Nitrate · 2000 ft
- WA Al 12Nitrate · 2200 ft
- Former BP StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Highfield RMS (GLC-32300)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GT's Handi-MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PEN (Pen Mar Park)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Highfield-Cascade'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 Highfield-Cascade.
Total Sites
410
within ~10 miles of Highfield-Cascade
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Highfield-Cascade
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Highfield-Cascade
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Highfield-Cascade, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Highfield-Cascade — CAFO (6 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Highfield-Cascade
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 Highfield-Cascade average
Your land is one point inside Highfield-Cascade
Everything above resolves to Highfield-Cascade as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Highfield-Cascade Average
Highfield-Cascade Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Highfield-Cascade
- ●One soil character for all of Highfield-Cascade
- ●Frost dates read at Highfield-Cascade's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Highfield-Cascade's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Highfield-Cascade
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Highfield-Cascade, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Highfield-Cascade averages can't show:
We read public map data around Highfield-Cascade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Highfield-Cascade average
How we know this about Highfield-Cascade
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 Highfield-Cascade’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 Highfield-Cascade
When does frost risk typically end in Highfield-Cascade?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Highfield-Cascade typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Highfield-Cascade?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Highfield-Cascade typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Highfield-Cascade?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Highfield-Cascade sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 22, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Highfield-Cascade?
The federal record around Highfield-Cascade is a meaningful one — 410 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (195), 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 Highfield-Cascade?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Highfield-Cascade's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Highfield-Cascade'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 Highfield-Cascade’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Highfield-Cascade's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,108 acres it covers and 410 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Highfield-Cascade's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Highfield-Cascade's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 5 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 410 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Highfield-Cascade, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Highfield-Cascade's boundary and the 1,108 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Highfield-Cascade sits in the Blue Ridge — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Highfield-Cascadelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Highfield-Cascade's 1,108 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 Highfield-Cascade's 1,108 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Highfield-Cascade you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,108 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 Highfield-Cascade-wide figureread your own land →