Overlea, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Overlea, 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 Overlea 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 Overlea — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Overlea — the short answer
Overlea, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Overlea's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Overlea's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Overlea
Each reading below is measured for Overlea itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOverlea runs about 255 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
MeasuredOverlea 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 Overlea is in
Overlea sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Overlea's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Baltimore County is mostly Northern Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Overlea
Every plant below cleared Overlea's own zone 7b and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Overlea?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 Overlea
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Overlea, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Overlea
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Overlea. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BETTY BRITE CLEANERSBrownfields · 700 ft
- Shell Station MD-075Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- COSMOPROF #6429Brownfields · 900 ft
- Double Rock Maintenance ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Getty - 29762Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Fullerton Supply Company, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BRIMROSE CORP OF AMERICABrownfields · 1400 ft
- Lassahn Funeral Home, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BILL AND EARLS AUTOMOTIVE INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Central AlarmersUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- State of Maryland Administration (roadway)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Shell Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Overlea'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 Overlea.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Overlea
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Overlea
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Overlea
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 Overlea average
Your land is one point inside Overlea
Everything above resolves to Overlea as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Overlea Average
Overlea Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Overlea
- ●One soil character for all of Overlea
- ●Frost dates read at Overlea's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Overlea's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Overlea
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Overlea, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Overlea averages can't show:
We read public map data around Overlea — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Overlea average
How we know this about Overlea
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 Overlea’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 Overlea
When does frost risk typically end in Overlea?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Overlea typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Overlea?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Overlea typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Overlea?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Overlea sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 13, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Overlea?
The federal record around Overlea runs heavier than most — 4,234 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,030), 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 Overlea?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Overlea's scale — its 7b band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Overlea'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 Overlea’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Overlea's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,930 acres it covers and 4,234 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Overlea's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Overlea's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 27 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,234 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Overlea, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Overlea's boundary and the 1,930 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Overlea sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Overlealydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Overlea's 1,930 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baltimore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baltimore 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 Baltimore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Overlea's 1,930 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Overlea you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,930 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 Overlea-wide figureread your own land →
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