Smith Island, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Smith Island, 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 Smith Island 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 Smith Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Smith Island — the short answer
Smith Island, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- 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 8a is Smith Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Smith Island's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Smith Island
Each reading below is measured for Smith Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSmith Island runs about 273 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSmith Island sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Smith Island is in
Smith Island sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Smith Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Smith Island
Every plant below cleared Smith Island's own zone 8a and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Smith Island?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Smith Island
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Smith Island, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Smith Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Smith Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SO Ea 4Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- SO Ea 10Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- SO Ea 2Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- SO Ea 1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Smith Island Co GLC - 36350Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SO Ea 5Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- SO Ea 11Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- Crisfield Marine TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- Tawes BrothersUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
- SO Ec 3Nitrate · 9.2 mi
- SO Ec 4Nitrate · 9.2 mi
- Steuart ShipyardUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Smith Island'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 Smith Island.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Smith Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Smith Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Smith Island, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Smith Island. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Smith Island
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 Smith Island average
Your land is one point inside Smith Island
Everything above resolves to Smith Island 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 Smith Island Average
Smith Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Smith Island
- ●One soil character for all of Smith Island
- ●Frost dates read at Smith Island's scale: Mar 7 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Smith Island's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Smith Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Smith Island, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Smith Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Smith Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smith Island average
How we know this about Smith Island
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 Smith Island’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 Smith Island
When does frost risk typically end in Smith Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Smith Island typically lands around Mar 7, 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 Mar 28.
When is the first frost in Smith Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Smith Island typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Smith Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Smith Island sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 21, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Smith Island?
The federal record around Smith Island is light — 33 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (16), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Smith Island?
From about Nov 5 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 Dec 5 (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 Dec 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Smith Island's scale — its 8a band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Smith Island'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 Smith Island’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Smith Island's own scale — its own ~273-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,784 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Smith Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Smith Island's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Dec 5 and the ~273-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Smith Island, the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Smith Island's boundary and the 2,784 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Smith Island's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Smith Islandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Smith Island's 2,784 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Smith Island's 2,784 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Smith Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,784 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Smith Island-wide figureread your own land →