McGee Creek, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in McGee Creek, 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 McGee Creek 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 McGee Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McGee Creek — the short answer
McGee Creek, California: USDA zone 6a, about 122 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~122
- 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 6a is McGee Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McGee Creek's 122-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McGee Creek
Each reading below is measured for McGee Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcGee Creek runs about 122 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMcGee Creek sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 McGee Creek is in
McGee Creek sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at McGee Creek's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mono County is mostly Central Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in McGee Creek
Every plant below cleared McGee Creek's own zone 6a and its 122-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McGee Creek?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near McGee Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McGee Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LONG VALLEY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICTBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- Crowley Lake General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN SKI AREA - OUTPOST 14PFAS · 3.1 mi
- MAMMOTH CWDPFAS · 3.1 mi
- CONVICT LAKE RESORT INCBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- HOT CREEK AVIATION LLCBrownfields · 4.8 mi
- 004S028E03J003MNitrate · 5.6 mi
- Laurel Creek Tungsten No. 1Mining · 5.7 mi
- CALTRANS DISTRICT 09Brownfields · 5.9 mi
- Luckly Strike ProspectMining · 6.3 mi
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 6.3 mi
- Hard Point MineMining · 6.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McGee Creek'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 McGee Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McGee Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McGee Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McGee Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of McGee Creek — Mining (7 sites) and Nitrate (20 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in McGee Creek
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 McGee Creek average
Your land is one point inside McGee Creek
Everything above resolves to McGee Creek 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 McGee Creek Average
McGee Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across McGee Creek
- ●One soil character for all of McGee Creek
- ●Frost dates read at McGee Creek's scale: May 30 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McGee Creek's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McGee Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McGee Creek, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McGee Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around McGee Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McGee Creek average
How we know this about McGee Creek
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 McGee Creek’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 McGee Creek
When does frost risk typically end in McGee Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McGee Creek typically lands around May 30, 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 Jun 20.
When is the first frost in McGee Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McGee Creek typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 122 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McGee Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McGee Creek sees about 122 frost-free days — roughly May 30 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 20 to Sep 15, about 87 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McGee Creek?
The federal record around McGee Creek shows 42 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in McGee Creek?
With about 122 frost-free days between hard freezes, McGee Creek rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 150 to 178 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 30 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at McGee Creek's scale — its 6a band and its 122-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McGee Creek'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 McGee Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McGee Creek's own scale — its own ~122-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,566 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McGee Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McGee Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 30 and Sep 29 and the ~122-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McGee Creek, the closest Brownfields record about 2.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McGee Creek's boundary and the 2,566 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~122-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- McGee Creek sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McGee Creek's 2,566 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mono County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mono County
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Mono County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McGee Creek's 2,566 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McGee Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,566 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.1 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 McGee Creek-wide figureread your own land →