McKee City, New Jersey, 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 McKee City, 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 McKee City 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 McKee City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McKee City — the short answer
McKee City, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- 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 7a is McKee City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McKee City's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McKee City
Each reading below is measured for McKee City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcKee City runs about 220 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
MeasuredMcKee City 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 McKee City is in
McKee City sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McKee City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Atlantic County.
What Grows in McKee City
Every plant below cleared McKee City's own zone 7a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McKee City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around McKee City
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from McKee City, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McKee City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McKee City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARDINGS RUN #1 PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ACME #852Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- WALMART #2108 EXPANSTIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- MACYS-HAMILTON(MAYS LANDING)Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- D'IMPERIO PROPERTYSuperfund · 0.8 mi
- D'IMPERIO PROPERTYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- 010230-- 1(Wood)Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 7-ELEVEN #40112Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 010958-- 8/Route 575Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 010232-- Com 4Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- BLACK HORSE AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #16482Brownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McKee City'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 McKee City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McKee City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McKee City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McKee City, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of McKee City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in McKee City
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 McKee City average
Your land is one point inside McKee City
Everything above resolves to McKee City 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 McKee City Average
McKee City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across McKee City
- ●One soil character for all of McKee City
- ●Frost dates read at McKee City's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McKee City's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McKee City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McKee City, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McKee City averages can't show:
We read public map data around McKee City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McKee City average
How we know this about McKee City
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 McKee City’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 McKee City
When does frost risk typically end in McKee City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McKee City typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in McKee City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McKee City typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McKee City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McKee City sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 25, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McKee City?
The federal record around McKee City runs heavier than most — 831 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (468), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in McKee City?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McKee City's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McKee City'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 McKee City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at McKee City's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,084 acres it covers and 831 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McKee City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McKee City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 8 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 831 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McKee City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McKee City's boundary and the 3,084 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McKee City's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of McKee Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McKee City's 3,084 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Atlantic County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Atlantic County
- The growing challenges every New Jersey grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Jersey
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Atlantic County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McKee City's 3,084 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McKee City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,084 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 McKee City-wide figureread your own land →
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