Smithsburg, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Smithsburg, 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 Smithsburg 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 Smithsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Smithsburg — the short answer
Smithsburg, Maryland: USDA zone 7a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 751 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 751 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 7a is Smithsburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Smithsburg's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Smithsburg
Each reading below is measured for Smithsburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSmithsburg runs about 218 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
MeasuredSmithsburg sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Smithsburg is in
Smithsburg sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Smithsburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Smithsburg
Every plant below cleared Smithsburg's own zone 7a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Smithsburg?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Smithsburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Smithsburg, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Smithsburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Smithsburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WA Bj 1Nitrate · 1100 ft
- Smithsburg Auto Body Shop, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Smithsburg Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FIL-TECToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- FIL-TECBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Kenneth MartinUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Thomas R. MillerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- William Merrick ParkerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- I. Bruce BarrUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SMITHSBURG HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- WA Bk 25Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Smithsburg ReservoirUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Smithsburg'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 Smithsburg.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Smithsburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Smithsburg
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 Smithsburg
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 Smithsburg average
Your land is one point inside Smithsburg
Everything above resolves to Smithsburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 751 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 Smithsburg Average
Smithsburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Smithsburg
- ●One soil character for all of Smithsburg
- ●Frost dates read at Smithsburg's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Smithsburg's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Smithsburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Smithsburg, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Smithsburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Smithsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smithsburg average
How we know this about Smithsburg
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 Smithsburg’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 Smithsburg
When does frost risk typically end in Smithsburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Smithsburg typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Smithsburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Smithsburg typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Smithsburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Smithsburg sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 22, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Smithsburg?
The federal record around Smithsburg is a meaningful one — 903 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (448), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Smithsburg?
From about Oct 6 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 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 Nov 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Smithsburg's scale — its 7a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Smithsburg'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 Smithsburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Smithsburg's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 751 acres it covers and 903 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Smithsburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Smithsburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 5 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 903 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Smithsburg, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Smithsburg's boundary and the 751 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Smithsburg's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Smithsburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Smithsburg's 751 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Smithsburg's 751 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Smithsburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 751 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Smithsburg-wide figureread your own land →