Ocean Pines, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Ocean Pines, 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 Ocean Pines 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 Ocean Pines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ocean Pines — the short answer
Ocean Pines, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Ocean Pines's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ocean Pines's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ocean Pines
Each reading below is measured for Ocean Pines itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOcean Pines runs about 246 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
MeasuredOcean Pines 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 Ocean Pines is in
Ocean Pines sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ocean Pines's own centroid rather than borrowed from Worcester County.
What Grows in Ocean Pines
Every plant below cleared Ocean Pines's own zone 7b and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ocean Pines?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Ocean Pines
Spotted lanternfly documented 12 miles from Ocean Pines, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ocean Pines
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ocean Pines. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dept. of Public Works, Water & Wastewater DivisionUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WORCESTER COUNTY DPWBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Yacht Club MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALGREENS DRUG STORE 11043Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- The PavilionsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SHA BRIDGE #2302600Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- 7-Eleven #19283Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Ocean Pines Association Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Northside Fire StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Martin GroffUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #1002Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- OCEAN PINES PARTS PLUSBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ocean Pines'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 Ocean Pines.
Total Sites
548
within ~10 miles of Ocean Pines
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ocean Pines
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ocean Pines
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ocean Pines, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ocean Pines — CAFO (38 sites) and PFAS (7 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Ocean Pines
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 Ocean Pines average
Your land is one point inside Ocean Pines
Everything above resolves to Ocean Pines as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Ocean Pines Average
Ocean Pines Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ocean Pines
- ●One soil character for all of Ocean Pines
- ●Frost dates read at Ocean Pines's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ocean Pines's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ocean Pines
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ocean Pines, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ocean Pines averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ocean Pines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ocean Pines average
How we know this about Ocean Pines
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 Ocean Pines’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 Ocean Pines
When does frost risk typically end in Ocean Pines?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean Pines typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Ocean Pines?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean Pines typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ocean Pines?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ocean Pines sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 7, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ocean Pines?
The federal record around Ocean Pines is a meaningful one — 548 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (241), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Ocean Pines?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ocean Pines's scale — its 7b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ocean Pines'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 Ocean Pines’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ocean Pines's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,144 acres it covers and 548 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ocean Pines's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ocean Pines's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 21 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 548 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ocean Pines, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ocean Pines's boundary and the 4,144 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ocean Pines's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ocean Pineslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ocean Pines's 4,144 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Worcester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Worcester 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 Worcester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ocean Pines's 4,144 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ocean Pines you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,144 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Ocean Pines-wide figureread your own land →