Jessup, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Jessup, 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 Jessup 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 Jessup — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Jessup — the short answer
Jessup, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 4K 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Jessup's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jessup's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jessup
Each reading below is measured for Jessup itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJessup runs about 222 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
MeasuredJessup 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 Jessup is in
Jessup sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jessup's own centroid rather than borrowed from Anne Arundel County.
What Grows in Jessup
Every plant below cleared Jessup's own zone 7b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jessup?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 6 — 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 Jessup
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Jessup, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Jessup
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jessup. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHA BRIDGE 0202300Brownfields · 450 ft
- SHA BRIDGE 1304300Brownfields · 450 ft
- Jessup Ready Mix PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Maryland House of CorrectionsUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MARYLAND MCE JESSUP CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONBrownfields · 950 ft
- CONCRETE PIPE & PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- LAFARGE MID-ATLANTIC, LLC - JESSUP PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- JESSUP READY MIX CONCRETEToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- Concrete Pipe & Precast - JessupUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- GERMAN AUTO SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- J. Thomas Bowles, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ELITE AUTOHAUSBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jessup'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 Jessup.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jessup
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jessup
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 Jessup
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 Jessup average
Your land is one point inside Jessup
Everything above resolves to Jessup as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Jessup Average
Jessup Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Jessup
- ●One soil character for all of Jessup
- ●Frost dates read at Jessup's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jessup's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jessup
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jessup, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jessup averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jessup — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jessup average
How we know this about Jessup
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 Jessup’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 Jessup
When does frost risk typically end in Jessup?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jessup 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 Jessup?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jessup typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jessup?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jessup sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 23, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jessup?
The federal record around Jessup is a meaningful one — 2,687 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,190), the nearest Brownfields 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 Jessup?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jessup's scale — its 7b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jessup'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 Jessup’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Jessup's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,871 acres it covers and 2,687 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jessup's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jessup's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 6 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,687 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jessup, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jessup's boundary and the 3,871 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jessup's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Jessuplydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jessup's 3,871 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Anne Arundel County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Anne Arundel 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 Anne Arundel County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jessup's 3,871 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jessup you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,871 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Jessup-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maryland
Wider growing context
What grows across MarylandJessup sits outside our named growing regions, so Maryland as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides