McHenry, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McHenry, 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 McHenry 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 McHenry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McHenry — the short answer
McHenry, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 414 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 McHenry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McHenry's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McHenry
Each reading below is measured for McHenry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcHenry runs about 228 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
MeasuredMcHenry 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 McHenry is in
McHenry sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McHenry's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ohio County.
What Grows in McHenry
Every plant below cleared McHenry's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McHenry?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around McHenry
Survey cells within 31 miles of McHenry checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 82 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McHenry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McHenry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fastway 19Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- MCHENRY BRASS INCToxics Release Inventory · 850 ft
- MCHENRY BRASS INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- Pyramid Equipment IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Key Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- OHIO CO LANDFILLToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- Hoke Farms Render LocationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Marvins Market No 4 IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- NESTAWAYToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- Beaver Dam KeystopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- H12A0013Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- Frere BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McHenry'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 McHenry.
Total Sites
151
within ~10 miles of McHenry
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McHenry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McHenry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McHenry, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of McHenry — Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites) and Nitrate (40 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in McHenry
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 McHenry average
Your land is one point inside McHenry
Everything above resolves to McHenry 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 city 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 McHenry Average
McHenry Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across McHenry
- ●One soil character for all of McHenry
- ●Frost dates read at McHenry's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McHenry's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McHenry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McHenry, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McHenry averages can't show:
We read public map data around McHenry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McHenry average
How we know this about McHenry
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at McHenry’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 McHenry
When does frost risk typically end in McHenry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McHenry typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in McHenry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McHenry typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McHenry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McHenry sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 26, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McHenry?
The federal record around McHenry is a meaningful one — 151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (90), 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 McHenry?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McHenry's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McHenry'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 McHenry’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at McHenry's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 414 acres it covers and 151 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McHenry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McHenry's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 9 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 151 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McHenry, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McHenry's boundary and the 414 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McHenry's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around McHenry checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McHenry's 414 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ohio County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ohio County
- The growing challenges every Kentucky grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kentucky
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Ohio County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McHenry's 414 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McHenry 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 McHenry-wide figureread your own land →