McKay, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in McKay, 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 McKay 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 McKay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
McKay — the short answer
McKay, Oregon: USDA zone 7a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 15K 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 McKay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McKay's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McKay
Each reading below is measured for McKay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcKay runs about 189 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMcKay 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 McKay is in
McKay sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at McKay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Umatilla County.
What Grows in McKay
Every plant below cleared McKay's own zone 7a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McKay?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near McKay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McKay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 01.00N/33.00E-10CDD01Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- PENDLETON VORTAC - 690413E1Underground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- MENTZER & ELLIOTT KEYLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- BOISE CASCADE KINZUA LUMBERToxics Release Inventory · 7.1 mi
- BOISE CASCADE KINZUA LUMBERBrownfields · 7.1 mi
- MOUNTAIN WEST PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 7.1 mi
- 01.00N/33.00E-04ACD01Nitrate · 7.1 mi
- UNION PACIFIC RR - PILOT ROCK SECTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- LOUISIANA-PACIFIC CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- ROY, DONALD CUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- J & D'S FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- ROBERT BOPP - PILOT ROCK CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McKay'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 McKay.
Total Sites
30
within ~10 miles of McKay
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McKay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McKay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McKay, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of McKay. 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 McKay
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 McKay average
Your land is one point inside McKay
Everything above resolves to McKay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 15K 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 McKay Average
McKay Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across McKay
- ●One soil character for all of McKay
- ●Frost dates read at McKay's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McKay's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McKay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McKay, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McKay averages can't show:
We read public map data around McKay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McKay average
How we know this about McKay
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 McKay’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 McKay
When does frost risk typically end in McKay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McKay typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in McKay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McKay typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McKay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McKay sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 5, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McKay?
The federal record around McKay is a meaningful one — 30 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Nitrate record about 5.6 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in McKay?
From about Sep 19 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 Oct 19 (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 Oct 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McKay's scale — its 7a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McKay'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 McKay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McKay's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 15,002 acres it covers and 30 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McKay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McKay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 19 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 30 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McKay, the closest Nitrate record about 5.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McKay's boundary and the 15,002 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McKay's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McKay's 15,002 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Umatilla County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Umatilla County
- The growing challenges every Oregon grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oregon
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Umatilla County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McKay's 15,002 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McKay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,002 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 5.6 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 McKay-wide figureread your own land →