Kensington, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kensington, 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 Kensington 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 Kensington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kensington — the short answer
Kensington, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 322 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 322 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 Kensington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kensington's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kensington
Each reading below is measured for Kensington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKensington runs about 232 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
MeasuredKensington 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 Kensington is in
Kensington sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kensington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Kensington
Every plant below cleared Kensington's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kensington?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 Kensington
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Kensington, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kensington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kensington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kensington Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Mick Mizell Property-Mizell Lumber & HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CREASE CLEANERS, LLCBrownfields · 600 ft
- WARNER MANORBrownfields · 750 ft
- KENSINGTON READY MIX PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 800 ft
- BEST CLEANERSBrownfields · 800 ft
- BC & T International UnionUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Kensington ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SAFEWAY STORE #2753Brownfields · 900 ft
- CLB PUBLISHERS & LITHOGRAPHERSBrownfields · 950 ft
- Kensington LibertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Kensington GettyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kensington'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 Kensington.
Total Sites
4,650
within ~10 miles of Kensington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
46 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kensington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kensington
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 Kensington
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 Kensington average
Your land is one point inside Kensington
Everything above resolves to Kensington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 322 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 Kensington Average
Kensington Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Kensington
- ●One soil character for all of Kensington
- ●Frost dates read at Kensington's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kensington's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kensington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kensington, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kensington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kensington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kensington average
How we know this about Kensington
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 Kensington’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 Kensington
When does frost risk typically end in Kensington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kensington typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Kensington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kensington typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kensington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kensington sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 30, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kensington?
The federal record around Kensington is a meaningful one — 4,650 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,464), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Kensington?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kensington's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kensington'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 Kensington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kensington's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 322 acres it covers and 4,650 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kensington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kensington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 13 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,650 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kensington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kensington's boundary and the 322 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kensington's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kensingtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kensington's 322 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 Kensington's 322 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kensington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 322 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Kensington-wide figureread your own land →