McGill, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McGill, 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 McGill 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 McGill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McGill — the short answer
McGill, Nevada: USDA zone 5b, about 138 days between hard freezes, across 774 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~138
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 774 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 5b is McGill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McGill's 138-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McGill
Each reading below is measured for McGill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcGill runs about 138 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
MeasuredMcGill sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 McGill is in
McGill sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at McGill's own centroid rather than borrowed from White Pine County.
What Grows in McGill
Every plant below cleared McGill's own zone 5b and its 138-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McGill?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near McGill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McGill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- McGill CDO Parcel 031Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Kennecott Nevada Mines DivisionUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Welfare NV Ely Farm-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- McGill Grade Bus Garage-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Berry Creek Guard Station-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Lillian Sundrud-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- McGill EMT Org-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Pony Express Gas MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- McGill Police Dept - ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GREAT BASIN IRRIGATION COBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Raymond Spear-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- (Facility) Mc Gill SmelterMining · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McGill'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 McGill.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of McGill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McGill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McGill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McGill, Mining runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of McGill. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in McGill
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 McGill average
Your land is one point inside McGill
Everything above resolves to McGill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 774 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 McGill Average
McGill Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across McGill
- ●One soil character for all of McGill
- ●Frost dates read at McGill's scale: May 17 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McGill's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McGill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McGill, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McGill averages can't show:
We read public map data around McGill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McGill average
How we know this about McGill
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 McGill’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 McGill
When does frost risk typically end in McGill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McGill typically lands around May 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in McGill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McGill typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 138 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McGill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McGill sees about 138 frost-free days — roughly May 17 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 7 to Sep 18, about 103 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McGill?
The federal record around McGill is a meaningful one — 50 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in McGill?
With about 138 frost-free days between hard freezes, McGill 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 166 to 194 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 17 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at McGill's scale — its 5b band and its 138-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McGill'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 McGill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McGill's own scale — its own ~138-day season between 28°F freezes, the 774 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McGill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McGill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 17 and Oct 2 and the ~138-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McGill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McGill's boundary and the 774 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~138-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McGill's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McGill's 774 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom White Pine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom White Pine County
- The growing challenges every Nevada grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nevada
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom White Pine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McGill's 774 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McGill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 774 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 McGill-wide figureread your own land →