Mardela Springs, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mardela Springs, 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 Mardela Springs 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 Mardela Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mardela Springs — the short answer
Mardela Springs, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 252 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 252 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 Mardela Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mardela Springs's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mardela Springs
Each reading below is measured for Mardela Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMardela Springs runs about 237 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
MeasuredMardela Springs 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 Mardela Springs is in
Mardela Springs sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mardela Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wicomico County.
What Grows in Mardela Springs
Every plant below cleared Mardela Springs's own zone 7b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mardela Springs?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Mardela Springs
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from Mardela Springs, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mardela Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mardela Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Johnny's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- JG PARKS AND SONS INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Howard Sand & Gravel, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Mardela Dash In #105Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Catlin Bros.Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Mardela Goose CreekUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WI Bd 11Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Mardela Middle/High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Wilson E. EvansUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WI Bd 68Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- WI Bd 70Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- WI Bd 69Nitrate · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mardela Springs'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 Mardela Springs.
Total Sites
355
within ~10 miles of Mardela Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mardela Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mardela Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mardela Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mardela Springs — CAFO (53 sites) and Nitrate (120 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 Mardela Springs
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 Mardela Springs average
Your land is one point inside Mardela Springs
Everything above resolves to Mardela Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 252 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 Mardela Springs Average
Mardela Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Mardela Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Mardela Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Mardela Springs's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mardela Springs's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mardela Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mardela Springs, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mardela Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mardela Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mardela Springs average
How we know this about Mardela Springs
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 Mardela Springs’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 Mardela Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Mardela Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mardela Springs typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Mardela Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mardela Springs typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mardela Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mardela Springs sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 2, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mardela Springs?
The federal record around Mardela Springs is a meaningful one — 355 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (131), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Mardela Springs?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mardela Springs's scale — its 7b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mardela Springs'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 Mardela Springs’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mardela Springs's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 252 acres it covers and 355 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mardela Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mardela Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 16 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 355 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mardela Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mardela Springs's boundary and the 252 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mardela Springs's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mardela Springslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mardela Springs's 252 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wicomico County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wicomico 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 Wicomico County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mardela Springs's 252 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mardela Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 252 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Mardela Springs-wide figureread your own land →