McLean, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in McLean, 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 McLean 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 McLean — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
McLean — the short answer
McLean, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 741 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 741 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 McLean's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McLean's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McLean
Each reading below is measured for McLean itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcLean runs about 225 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
MeasuredMcLean 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 McLean is in
McLean sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at McLean's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Gray County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in McLean
Every plant below cleared McLean's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McLean?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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.
What's on the federal record near McLean
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McLean. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RICHARDSON TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- TAYLOR FOOD MART 2016Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CITY OF MCLEANUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- FOSHEE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- THE FILLIN STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CANTRELL OIL & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- GUYTON MOTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MCLEAN ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BENS SELF SERVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FINA 510Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GARRISONS COUNTRY CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MCLEAN FARMCAFO · 3.6 mi
2 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McLean'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 McLean.
Total Sites
16
within ~10 miles of McLean
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McLean
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McLean
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in McLean
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 McLean average
Your land is one point inside McLean
Everything above resolves to McLean as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 741 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 McLean Average
McLean Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across McLean
- ●One soil character for all of McLean
- ●Frost dates read at McLean's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McLean's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McLean
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McLean, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McLean averages can't show:
We read public map data around McLean — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McLean average
How we know this about McLean
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 McLean’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 McLean
When does frost risk typically end in McLean?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McLean typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in McLean?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McLean typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McLean?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McLean sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 26, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McLean?
The federal record around McLean is light — 16 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (11), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in McLean?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McLean's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McLean'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 McLean’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McLean's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 741 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McLean's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McLean's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 9 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McLean, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McLean's boundary and the 741 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- McLean sits in the Central Great Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McLean's 741 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gray County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gray County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Gray County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McLean's 741 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McLean you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 741 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 McLean-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasMcLean sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides