Riverdale Park, 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 Riverdale Park, 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 Riverdale Park 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 Riverdale Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Riverdale Park — the short answer
Riverdale Park, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- 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 Riverdale Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Riverdale Park's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Riverdale Park
Each reading below is measured for Riverdale Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRiverdale Park runs about 238 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
MeasuredRiverdale Park 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 Riverdale Park is in
Riverdale Park sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Riverdale Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Prince George's County.
What Grows in Riverdale Park
Every plant below cleared Riverdale Park's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Riverdale Park?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Riverdale Park
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Riverdale Park, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Riverdale Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Riverdale Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MEDCURA, INC.Brownfields · 750 ft
- USDA - Animal Plant Health Inspection ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- USDOI NATIONAL PARK SERVICEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Premier Properties, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NOAA NATIONAL OCEAN SERVICEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- DEFENSE MAPPING AGENCYBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Pittcon IndustriesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Riverdale Public WorksUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND - JIFSANBrownfields · 1900 ft
- PITTCONBrownfields · 2000 ft
- American Center for PhysicsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Dunbar ArmoredUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Riverdale Park'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 Riverdale Park.
Total Sites
5,151
within ~10 miles of Riverdale Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
67 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Riverdale Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Riverdale Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Riverdale Park, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 67 sites within ~10 miles of Riverdale Park. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Riverdale Park
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 Riverdale Park average
Your land is one point inside Riverdale Park
Everything above resolves to Riverdale Park 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 Riverdale Park Average
Riverdale Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Riverdale Park
- ●One soil character for all of Riverdale Park
- ●Frost dates read at Riverdale Park's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Riverdale Park's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Riverdale Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Riverdale Park, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Riverdale Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Riverdale Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Riverdale Park average
How we know this about Riverdale Park
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 Riverdale Park’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 Riverdale Park
When does frost risk typically end in Riverdale Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Riverdale Park typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Riverdale Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Riverdale Park typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Riverdale Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Riverdale Park sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 2, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Riverdale Park?
The federal record around Riverdale Park is a meaningful one — 5,151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,749), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Riverdale Park?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Riverdale Park's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Riverdale Park'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 Riverdale Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Riverdale Park's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,016 acres it covers and 5,151 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Riverdale Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Riverdale Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 16 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,151 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Riverdale Park, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Riverdale Park's boundary and the 1,016 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Riverdale Park's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Riverdale Parklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Riverdale Park's 1,016 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prince George's County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prince George's 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 Prince George's County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Riverdale Park's 1,016 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Riverdale Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,016 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 Riverdale Park-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maryland
Wider growing context
What grows across MarylandRiverdale Park sits outside our named growing regions, so Maryland as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides