McKinley, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McKinley, 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 McKinley 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 McKinley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McKinley — the short answer
McKinley, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7b, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 565 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 565 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 7b is McKinley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McKinley's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McKinley
Each reading below is measured for McKinley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcKinley runs about 241 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
MeasuredMcKinley sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 McKinley is in
McKinley sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McKinley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in McKinley
Every plant below cleared McKinley's own zone 7b and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McKinley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 McKinley
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from McKinley, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McKinley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McKinley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONROYS SHELL LLCBrownfields · 850 ft
- 902 JENKINTOWN RD SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- LOUIS RUZICKAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CADWALDER SERVICE CTRBrownfields · 1800 ft
- ELKINS PARK CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 860 TOWNSHIP LINE RDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ELKINS PARK AUTO SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SANDWICH STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- POINSETTIA CLNR/ELKINS PARKBrownfields · 2100 ft
- MANOR COLLEGEBrownfields · 2500 ft
- MOSS REHAB EINSTEIN AT ELKINS PARKBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ALVERTHORPE PARK MAINT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McKinley'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 McKinley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McKinley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McKinley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McKinley, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of McKinley. 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 McKinley
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 McKinley average
Your land is one point inside McKinley
Everything above resolves to McKinley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 565 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 McKinley Average
McKinley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across McKinley
- ●One soil character for all of McKinley
- ●Frost dates read at McKinley's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McKinley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McKinley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McKinley, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McKinley averages can't show:
We read public map data around McKinley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McKinley average
How we know this about McKinley
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 McKinley’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 McKinley
When does frost risk typically end in McKinley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McKinley typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in McKinley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McKinley typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McKinley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McKinley sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 5, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McKinley?
The federal record around McKinley runs heavier than most — 5,476 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,700), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 McKinley?
From about Oct 20 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 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 Nov 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McKinley's scale — its 7b band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McKinley'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 McKinley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at McKinley's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 565 acres it covers and 5,476 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McKinley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McKinley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 19 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,476 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McKinley, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McKinley's boundary and the 565 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McKinley's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of McKinleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McKinley's 565 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery County
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McKinley's 565 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McKinley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 565 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 McKinley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaMcKinley sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides