New Windsor, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Windsor, 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 New Windsor 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 New Windsor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Windsor — the short answer
New Windsor, Maryland: USDA zone 7a, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 472 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 472 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 7a is New Windsor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Windsor's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Windsor
Each reading below is measured for New Windsor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Windsor runs about 219 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
MeasuredNew Windsor sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 New Windsor is in
New Windsor sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Windsor's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carroll County.
What Grows in New Windsor
Every plant below cleared New Windsor's own zone 7a and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Windsor?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 New Windsor
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from New Windsor, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Windsor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Windsor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Garber's ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 7-Eleven #28957Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Brethren Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Hartzler Funeral HomeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- New Windsor CDO GLC- 28770Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Xtreme FabricationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Lambert's Garage/Blue Ridge Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- D. P. Smelser and Sons, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- New Windsor Automotive Spec.Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DIELMAN INNBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Southern State Carroll PetroleumUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Strawsburg's LiquorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Windsor'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 New Windsor.
Total Sites
533
within ~10 miles of New Windsor
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Windsor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Windsor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Windsor, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of New Windsor. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in New Windsor
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 New Windsor average
Your land is one point inside New Windsor
Everything above resolves to New Windsor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 472 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 New Windsor Average
New Windsor Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across New Windsor
- ●One soil character for all of New Windsor
- ●Frost dates read at New Windsor's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Windsor's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Windsor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Windsor, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Windsor averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Windsor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Windsor average
How we know this about New Windsor
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 New Windsor’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 New Windsor
When does frost risk typically end in New Windsor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Windsor typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in New Windsor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Windsor typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Windsor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Windsor sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 24, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Windsor?
The federal record around New Windsor is a meaningful one — 533 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (276), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 New Windsor?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Windsor's scale — its 7a band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Windsor'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 New Windsor’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Windsor's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 472 acres it covers and 533 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Windsor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Windsor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 7 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 533 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Windsor, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Windsor's boundary and the 472 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Windsor's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Windsorlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Windsor's 472 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carroll County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carroll 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 Carroll County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Windsor's 472 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Windsor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 472 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 New Windsor-wide figureread your own land →
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