Spring Gap, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Spring Gap, 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 Spring Gap 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 Spring Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spring Gap — the short answer
Spring Gap, Maryland: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 414 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 414 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 Spring Gap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spring Gap's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spring Gap
Each reading below is measured for Spring Gap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpring Gap runs about 212 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
MeasuredSpring Gap 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 Spring Gap is in
Spring Gap sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spring Gap's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegany County.
What Grows in Spring Gap
Every plant below cleared Spring Gap's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spring Gap?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Spring Gap
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Spring Gap, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Spring Gap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spring Gap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Millstone Service Station, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Oldtown ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SHA BRIDGE #0109200Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- Min-0150Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- PATTERSON CREEK REPEATERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- AL Be 46Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- District 16 Volunteer Fire DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Potomac Metal & Supply, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- ALLEGANY CO DPWBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- U.S.MARINE-CUMBERLAND IToxics Release Inventory · 3.0 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZCMBBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- PENSKE TRUCK LEASING CO. LPBrownfields · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spring Gap'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 Spring Gap.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spring Gap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spring Gap
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spring Gap, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Spring Gap. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Spring Gap
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 Spring Gap average
Your land is one point inside Spring Gap
Everything above resolves to Spring Gap as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 414 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 Spring Gap Average
Spring Gap Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Spring Gap
- ●One soil character for all of Spring Gap
- ●Frost dates read at Spring Gap's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spring Gap's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spring Gap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spring Gap, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spring Gap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spring Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spring Gap average
How we know this about Spring Gap
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 Spring Gap’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 Spring Gap
When does frost risk typically end in Spring Gap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Gap typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Spring Gap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Gap typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spring Gap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spring Gap sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 18, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spring Gap?
The federal record around Spring Gap is a meaningful one — 405 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (237), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Spring Gap?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spring Gap's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spring Gap'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 Spring Gap’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Spring Gap's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 414 acres it covers and 405 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spring Gap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spring Gap's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 1 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 405 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spring Gap, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spring Gap's boundary and the 414 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spring Gap's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Spring Gaplydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spring Gap's 414 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegany County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegany 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 Allegany County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spring Gap's 414 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spring Gap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 414 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Spring Gap-wide figureread your own land →
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