North East, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North East, 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 North East 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 North East — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North East — the short answer
North East, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- 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 7b is North East's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North East's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North East
Each reading below is measured for North East itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth East runs about 223 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
MeasuredNorth East 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 North East is in
North East sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North East's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cecil County is mostly Northern Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in North East
Every plant below cleared North East's own zone 7b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North East?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 North East
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from North East, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North East
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North East. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MDTA BRIDGE CEXA47001Brownfields · 700 ft
- Welchs Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- North East Car WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- North East BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Maintenance YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Sunoco #0014-1192Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- RICHLANDS USED OIL COBrownfields · 1900 ft
- PETCO STORE #2820Brownfields · 2100 ft
- North East - Barrack ""F""Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WAWA FOOD MARKET #585Brownfields · 2400 ft
- North East Wire Center (GLC-39500)Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- The North East ShoppeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North East'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 North East.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North East
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North East
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North East, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North East — Superfund (19 sites) and CAFO (7 sites). 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in North East
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 North East average
Your land is one point inside North East
Everything above resolves to North East 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 North East Average
North East Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across North East
- ●One soil character for all of North East
- ●Frost dates read at North East's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North East's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North East
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North East, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North East averages can't show:
We read public map data around North East — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North East average
How we know this about North East
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 North East’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 North East
When does frost risk typically end in North East?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North East typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in North East?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North East typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North East?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North East sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 25, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North East?
The federal record around North East runs heavier than most — 721 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (350), the nearest Brownfields 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 North East?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North East's scale — its 7b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North East'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 North East’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North East's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,306 acres it covers and 721 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North East's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North East's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 8 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 721 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North East, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North East's boundary and the 1,306 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- North East sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Eastlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North East's 1,306 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cecil County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cecil 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 Cecil County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North East's 1,306 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North East you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,306 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 North East-wide figureread your own land →
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