Regional guide
Central Maryland Planting Calendar Vegetable Garden
A UMD Extension Central Maryland planting-calendar guide for frost assumptions, warm-soil crops, successions, transplants, and crop windows.
Climate signals
- UMD Extension says its vegetable planting calendars were created for Central Maryland; Western, Northern, and Southern Maryland, and the Eastern Shore need timeline adjustments.
- Maryland frost-free growing days range from 155 in far Western Maryland to 230 on the Lower Eastern Shore, so this Central Maryland guide is not a statewide date rule.
- The Central Maryland calendar is based on a last frost around May 1 and a first frost around October 31.
- Warm-soil direct-seeded crops such as beans, cucumbers, and melons need soil temperatures of at least 60 degrees F to reduce the risk of seed rot.
Planning notes
- Use the UMD calendar ranges as the period when each vegetable can be planted and expected to succeed, then plant small batches every two weeks for sustained harvest.
- Treat direct-sown plants as the default where the calendar lists direct seeding; crops with an asterisk may also be transplanted for an earlier harvest.
- Crops with a long period from seed to harvest must be started indoors under grow lights before transplanting them outside as seedlings.
- Direct-sow snap beans May through July, beets April through July, carrots Mid-April through May and again mid-June through July, peas Mid-March through April, and sweet corn May through early July.
- For broccoli, start spring transplants February through March and set them out in April; start fall transplants Late June through early July and set them out Mid-July through early August.
- For Brussels sprouts, start transplants in May and set them out Mid-June through mid-July; for cabbage, start spring transplants Mid-February through mid-March and set them out Mid-March through mid-April.
- Use cucumber Mid-May through mid-July, summer squash May through mid-June, winter squash Mid-May through mid-June, and watermelon Mid-May through mid-June for warm direct-sown cucurbit beds.
- Start eggplant indoors in April and peppers March through mid-April, then transplant both Mid-May through mid-June; start tomatoes Mid-March through mid-May and transplant May through early July.
- Use leaf lettuce Mid-March through May and Mid-July through the first two weeks of September; use radishes Mid-March through early May and Mid-July through mid-September.
- Use spinach from mid-March through the end of April and again August through early September; use turnips mid-March through April and mid-July through August.
Catalog crop examples
These catalog entries match crops covered by the regional timing source; variety-specific details remain tied to each seed entry's own source.
- Provider Bush Bean Vegetable · Warm · 50 days
- Detroit Dark Red Beet Vegetable · Cool · 58 days
- Waltham 29 Broccoli Vegetable · Cool · 74 days
- Long Island Improved Brussels Sprouts Vegetable · Cool · 100 days
- Golden Acre Cabbage Vegetable · Cool · 64 days
- Danvers 126 Carrot Vegetable · Shoulder · 70 days
- Snowball Y Cauliflower Vegetable · Cool · 70 days
- Bright Lights Swiss Chard Vegetable · Shoulder · 55 days
- Golden Bantam Sweet Corn Vegetable · Warm · 80 days
- Marketmore 76 Cucumber Vegetable · Warm · 58 days
- Black Beauty Eggplant Vegetable · Warm · 80 days
- Lacinato Kale Vegetable · Cool · 60 days
- Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce Vegetable · Cool · 45 days
- Evergreen Bunching Onion Vegetable · Shoulder · 65 days
- Hollow Crown Parsnip Vegetable · Cool · 120 days
- Sugar Snap Pea Vegetable · Cool · 62 days
- California Wonder Pepper Vegetable · Warm · 72 days
- Small Sugar Pumpkin Vegetable · Warm · 100 days
- French Breakfast Radish Vegetable · Cool · 28 days
- Bloomsdale Spinach Vegetable · Cool · 42 days
- Delicata Winter Squash Vegetable · Warm · 100 days
- Waltham Butternut Squash Vegetable · Warm · 95 days
- Roma Tomato Vegetable · Warm · 76 days
- Purple Top White Globe Turnip Vegetable · Cool · 55 days
- Sugar Baby Watermelon Vegetable · Warm · 80 days
Related regional guides
- Delaware Frost-Probability Vegetable Garden University of Delaware Cooperative Extension guide for frost-probability planning, succession rows, fall crops, and tender-crop timing in Delaware.
- New Jersey Frost-Range Seed-Starting Garden Rutgers NJAES seed-starting guide for New Jersey gardeners using local last-frost ranges, cool-season transplants, and warm-season soil readiness.
- Virginia Hardiness Zone Vegetable Planting Guide A Virginia Cooperative Extension guide for USDA hardiness-zone vegetable planting tables, frost ranges, microclimates, row covers, and crop windows.