Morningside, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Morningside, 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 Morningside 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 Morningside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Morningside — the short answer
Morningside, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 363 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 363 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 Morningside's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morningside's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Morningside
Each reading below is measured for Morningside itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMorningside runs about 242 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
MeasuredMorningside 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 Morningside is in
Morningside sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Morningside's own centroid rather than borrowed from Prince George's County.
What Grows in Morningside
Every plant below cleared Morningside's own zone 7b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Morningside?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Morningside
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Morningside, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Morningside
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Morningside. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Tommy's Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Andrew TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Hurley PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Shell Station - #219-6200-0101Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PG Ed 4Nitrate · 1400 ft
- Suitland ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HOME DEPOT DC #5827Brownfields · 1800 ft
- WMATA ANDREWS FEDERAL CENTER BUS GARAGEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- ANDREWS MANOR CLEANING CENTERBrownfields · 2000 ft
- ANDREWS CLEANERSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Exxon MD-012Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TEXACOBrownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morningside'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 Morningside.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Morningside
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Morningside
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morningside, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Morningside. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Morningside
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 Morningside average
Your land is one point inside Morningside
Everything above resolves to Morningside as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 363 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 Morningside Average
Morningside Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Morningside
- ●One soil character for all of Morningside
- ●Frost dates read at Morningside's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morningside's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Morningside
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morningside, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morningside averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morningside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morningside average
How we know this about Morningside
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 Morningside’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 Morningside
When does frost risk typically end in Morningside?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morningside typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Morningside?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Morningside typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Morningside?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morningside sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 4, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morningside?
The federal record around Morningside runs heavier than most — 3,864 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,091), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Morningside?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Morningside's scale — its 7b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morningside'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 Morningside’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Morningside's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 363 acres it covers and 3,864 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morningside's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morningside's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 18 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,864 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Morningside, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Morningside's boundary and the 363 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Morningside's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Morningsidelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Morningside's 363 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prince George's County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prince George's 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 Prince George's County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morningside's 363 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Morningside you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 363 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 Morningside-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maryland
Wider growing context
What grows across MarylandMorningside sits outside our named growing regions, so Maryland as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides