Lansdowne, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lansdowne, 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 Lansdowne 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 Lansdowne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lansdowne — the short answer
Lansdowne, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- 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 8a is Lansdowne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lansdowne's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lansdowne
Each reading below is measured for Lansdowne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLansdowne runs about 258 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
MeasuredLansdowne sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Lansdowne is in
Lansdowne sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lansdowne's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Baltimore County is mostly Northern Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lansdowne
Every plant below cleared Lansdowne's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lansdowne?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Lansdowne
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Lansdowne, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lansdowne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lansdowne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Folcomer Equipment Corp.Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- KIBLER EXCAVATIONOBrownfields · 450 ft
- Horn TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- AMERICAN BALTO HOME INSULATIONBrownfields · 750 ft
- Lansdowne Gas (Carroll Motor Fuels)Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- PENSKE TRUCK LEASING 219BBrownfields · 800 ft
- Rollins Leasing Corp. BR #219-BUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Hammonds Ferry SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- D & R HAULING COBrownfields · 1100 ft
- 2320 Monumental Ave.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- C TECH INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Fireline CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lansdowne'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 Lansdowne.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lansdowne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lansdowne
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 Lansdowne
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 Lansdowne average
Your land is one point inside Lansdowne
Everything above resolves to Lansdowne 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 Lansdowne Average
Lansdowne Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lansdowne
- ●One soil character for all of Lansdowne
- ●Frost dates read at Lansdowne's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lansdowne's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lansdowne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lansdowne, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lansdowne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lansdowne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lansdowne average
How we know this about Lansdowne
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 Lansdowne’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 Lansdowne
When does frost risk typically end in Lansdowne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lansdowne typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Lansdowne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lansdowne typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lansdowne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lansdowne sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 14, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lansdowne?
The federal record around Lansdowne runs heavier than most — 5,060 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,402), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lansdowne?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lansdowne's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lansdowne'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 Lansdowne’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lansdowne's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,457 acres it covers and 5,060 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lansdowne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lansdowne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 28 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,060 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lansdowne, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lansdowne's boundary and the 1,457 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lansdowne sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lansdownelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lansdowne's 1,457 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baltimore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baltimore 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 Baltimore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lansdowne's 1,457 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lansdowne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,457 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 Lansdowne-wide figureread your own land →
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