Hurlock, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hurlock, 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 Hurlock 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 Hurlock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hurlock — the short answer
Hurlock, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- 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 7b is Hurlock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hurlock's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hurlock
Each reading below is measured for Hurlock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHurlock runs about 243 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
MeasuredHurlock 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 Hurlock is in
Hurlock sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hurlock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dorchester County.
What Grows in Hurlock
Every plant below cleared Hurlock's own zone 7b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hurlock?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Hurlock
Spotted lanternfly documented 12 miles from Hurlock, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hurlock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hurlock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Earl View Farms, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Perdue Hurlock FeedmillUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HURLOCK FEED MILL/HATCHERYToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- HURLOCK FEED MILL/HATCHERYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- DO Bg 73Nitrate · 1600 ft
- Future Builders SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Harlock FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #23658Brownfields · 2300 ft
- Crop Production ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Hurlock Exxon T/A NASR, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Hurlock Goose CreekUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Hurlock HatcheryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hurlock'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 Hurlock.
Total Sites
459
within ~10 miles of Hurlock
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hurlock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hurlock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hurlock, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hurlock — CAFO (85 sites) and Nitrate (186 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Hurlock
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 Hurlock average
Your land is one point inside Hurlock
Everything above resolves to Hurlock 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 Hurlock Average
Hurlock Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hurlock
- ●One soil character for all of Hurlock
- ●Frost dates read at Hurlock's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hurlock's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hurlock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hurlock, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hurlock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hurlock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hurlock average
How we know this about Hurlock
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 Hurlock’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 Hurlock
When does frost risk typically end in Hurlock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hurlock typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Hurlock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hurlock typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hurlock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hurlock sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 4, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hurlock?
The federal record around Hurlock is a meaningful one — 459 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (186), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hurlock?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hurlock's scale — its 7b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hurlock'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 Hurlock’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hurlock's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,708 acres it covers and 459 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hurlock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hurlock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 18 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 459 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hurlock, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hurlock's boundary and the 1,708 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hurlock's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hurlocklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hurlock's 1,708 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dorchester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dorchester 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 Dorchester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hurlock's 1,708 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hurlock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,708 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hurlock-wide figureread your own land →