McHenry County, in North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
McHenry County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across McHenry County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
McHenry County — the short answer
McHenry County, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 1.2M acres.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~151
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.2M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 4a is McHenry County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McHenry County's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in McHenry County
Across a year, McHenry County accumulates about 1,838 growing degree days above 50°F, about 75 fewer than the middle North Dakota county — ahead of 15 of North Dakota’s 53 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in McHenry County
Across McHenry County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Hecla, Ulen, and Barnes are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–7.5, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
23%
Hydric soils
17%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across McHenry County
The USDA soil survey maps 42% of McHenry County as moderately well drained — but another 57% drains differently: 22% well drained, 14% somewhat poorly drained.
Hecla is the most extensive named soil at 8% of mapped acres, then Ulen (6%) and Barnes (6%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in McHenry County
Each reading below is measured for McHenry County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across McHenry County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group A — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across McHenry County runs about pH 7.0–7.5, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 17% of McHenry County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMcHenry County runs about 151 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
The kind of country McHenry County is in
McHenry County sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in McHenry County
We scored all 1,086 plants against McHenry County's own USDA zone 4a and its own 151-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile.
Is it too late to plant in McHenry County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around McHenry County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in McHenry County
USGS estimates 619,394 lb of Glyphosate on McHenry County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (46,227 lb) and Bromoxynil (43,628 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across McHenry County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across McHenry County — 517 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across McHenry County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near McHenry County
Closest first, across McHenry County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 155-077-17AAANitrate · 2.6 mi
- 155-078-16DDDNitrate · 2.7 mi
- 154-077-06DCBNitrate · 3.5 mi
- Denbigh Experimental ForestUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- 155-077-27ABDNitrate · 4.1 mi
- 154-078-10ADDNitrate · 4.4 mi
- 155-077-26BAANitrate · 4.8 mi
- 155-078-19ABBNitrate · 5.1 mi
- 156-077-29BBCNitrate · 5.4 mi
- 154-077-18CCCNitrate · 5.6 mi
- 155-077-24BDCNitrate · 5.6 mi
- 154-077-17CCCNitrate · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McHenry County'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 County.
Total Sites
517
across McHenry County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across McHenry County
Severity Distribution
across McHenry County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McHenry County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 440 sites across McHenry County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
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 County
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 County average
Your land is one point inside McHenry County
Everything above resolves to McHenry County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.2M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the McHenry County Average
McHenry County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across McHenry County
- ●One soil character for all of McHenry County
- ●Frost dates read at McHenry County's scale: May 6 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McHenry County's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in McHenry County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McHenry County, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McHenry County averages can't show:
We read public map data around McHenry County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McHenry County average
How we know this about McHenry County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where McHenry County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about McHenry County
When does frost risk typically end in McHenry County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McHenry County typically lands around May 6, 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 May 27.
How long is the growing season in McHenry County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McHenry County sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 20, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McHenry County?
The federal record around McHenry County is a meaningful one — 517 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (440), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.6 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.
Everything above is measured at McHenry County's scale — its 4a band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McHenry County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads North Dakota's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at McHenry County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at McHenry County's own scale — its own ~151-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 517 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McHenry County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McHenry County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in McHenry CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 517 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- McHenry County's boundary and the 1,199,322 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- McHenry County sitting wholly inside the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in McHenry County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto McHenry County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every North Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Dakota
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across McHenry County — the ~151 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McHenry County's 1,199,322 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 517 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over McHenry Countyread your own land →