Owings, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Owings, 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 Owings 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 Owings — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Owings — the short answer
Owings, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Owings's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Owings's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Owings
Each reading below is measured for Owings itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOwings runs about 254 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
MeasuredOwings 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 Owings is in
Owings sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Owings's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calvert County.
What Grows in Owings
Every plant below cleared Owings's own zone 7b and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Owings?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Owings
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Owings, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Owings
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Owings. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Owings Lumber Co. Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Owings Plant (04-0000000)Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Sisk Auto BodyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CALIBER COLLISION CENTER - OWINGS 3061Brownfields · 1900 ft
- Owings Dash In #092Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Dunkirk Supply Truss PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Rausch Funeral HomeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Bay Mill Construction Co. Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CA Bb 18Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Howlin ConcreteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Mr. Richard KidwellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Gerald J. BurdsallUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Owings'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 Owings.
Total Sites
324
within ~10 miles of Owings
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Owings
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Owings
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Owings, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Owings — Nitrate (104 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Owings
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 Owings average
Your land is one point inside Owings
Everything above resolves to Owings as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Owings Average
Owings Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Owings
- ●One soil character for all of Owings
- ●Frost dates read at Owings's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Owings's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Owings
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Owings, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Owings averages can't show:
We read public map data around Owings — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Owings average
How we know this about Owings
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 Owings’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 Owings
When does frost risk typically end in Owings?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Owings typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Owings?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Owings typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Owings?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Owings sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 14, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Owings?
The federal record around Owings is a meaningful one — 324 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (164), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Owings?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Owings's scale — its 7b band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Owings'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 Owings’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Owings's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,521 acres it covers and 324 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Owings's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Owings's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 28 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 324 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Owings, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Owings's boundary and the 2,521 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Owings's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Owingslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Owings's 2,521 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calvert County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calvert 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 Calvert County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Owings's 2,521 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Owings you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,521 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Owings-wide figureread your own land →
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