Lusby, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Lusby, 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 Lusby 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 Lusby — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lusby — the short answer
Lusby, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- 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 8a is Lusby's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lusby's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lusby
Each reading below is measured for Lusby itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLusby runs about 265 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLusby 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 Lusby is in
Lusby sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lusby's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calvert County.
What Grows in Lusby
Every plant below cleared Lusby's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lusby?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Lusby
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Lusby, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lusby
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lusby. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Patuxent High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GJG LLC/DBA Mimi's StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Calvert CafeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Lusby ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Giant Fuel #343Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Lusby FastopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- VALVOLINE INSTANT OIL CHANGE BA-0025Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- Appeal Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Lusby Shell #091Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Patuxent Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Lawrence Calvin GrossUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SERVICE KING COLLISION REPAIR CENTERBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lusby'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 Lusby.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lusby
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lusby
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lusby, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lusby — Nitrate (162 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Lusby
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 Lusby average
Your land is one point inside Lusby
Everything above resolves to Lusby 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 Lusby Average
Lusby Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lusby
- ●One soil character for all of Lusby
- ●Frost dates read at Lusby's scale: Mar 11 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lusby's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lusby
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lusby, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lusby averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lusby — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lusby average
How we know this about Lusby
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 Lusby’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 Lusby
When does frost risk typically end in Lusby?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lusby typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Lusby?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lusby typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lusby?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lusby sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 17, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lusby?
The federal record around Lusby is a meaningful one — 408 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (162), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Lusby?
From about Nov 1 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 Dec 1 (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 Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lusby's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lusby'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 Lusby’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lusby's own scale — its own ~265-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,248 acres it covers and 408 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lusby's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lusby's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Dec 1 and the ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 408 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lusby, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lusby's boundary and the 2,248 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lusby's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lusbylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lusby's 2,248 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calvert County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calvert 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 Calvert County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lusby's 2,248 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lusby you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,248 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Lusby-wide figureread your own land →