Waldorf, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Waldorf, 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 Waldorf 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 Waldorf — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Waldorf — the short answer
Waldorf, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 23K 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 23K 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 Waldorf's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waldorf's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waldorf
Each reading below is measured for Waldorf itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaldorf runs about 237 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
MeasuredWaldorf 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 Waldorf is in
Waldorf sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Waldorf's own centroid rather than borrowed from Charles County.
What Grows in Waldorf
Every plant below cleared Waldorf's own zone 7b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waldorf?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 15 — 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 Waldorf
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Waldorf, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Waldorf
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waldorf. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UTZ Quality Foods, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- M & D CLEANERSBrownfields · 400 ft
- AT&T MD1420Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Custom Metals, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Dash In Smallwood Exxon #043Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Smallwood Dunkin DonutsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC - DMD8Brownfields · 2500 ft
- Ultra FuelsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PRIDE AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- WEST LAKE CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Sunoco #0132-6164Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BM & KING GEORGE AUTOBODY & PAINTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waldorf'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 Waldorf.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waldorf
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waldorf
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 Waldorf
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 Waldorf average
Your land is one point inside Waldorf
Everything above resolves to Waldorf as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 23K 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 Waldorf Average
Waldorf Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Waldorf
- ●One soil character for all of Waldorf
- ●Frost dates read at Waldorf's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waldorf's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waldorf
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waldorf, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waldorf averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waldorf — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waldorf average
How we know this about Waldorf
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 Waldorf’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 Waldorf
When does frost risk typically end in Waldorf?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waldorf 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 Waldorf?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waldorf typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Waldorf?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waldorf sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 1, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waldorf?
The federal record around Waldorf is a meaningful one — 633 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (333), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Waldorf?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Waldorf's scale — its 7b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waldorf'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 Waldorf’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Waldorf's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 23,191 acres it covers and 633 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waldorf's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waldorf's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 15 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 633 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waldorf, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waldorf's boundary and the 23,191 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Waldorf's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Waldorflydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Waldorf's 23,191 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Charles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Charles 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 Charles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waldorf's 23,191 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waldorf you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,191 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Waldorf-wide figureread your own land →
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