McQueeney, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in McQueeney, 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 McQueeney 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 McQueeney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
McQueeney — the short answer
McQueeney, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 302 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 6
- Guadalupe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Guadalupe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~302
- Guadalupe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Guadalupe County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is McQueeney's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McQueeney's 302-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McQueeney
Each reading below is measured for McQueeney itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMcQueeney runs about 302 days between hard freezes (read from Guadalupe County, the closest normal to McQueeney) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMcQueeney sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 McQueeney is in
McQueeney sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at McQueeney's own centroid rather than borrowed from Guadalupe County.
What Grows in McQueeney
Every plant below cleared McQueeney's own zone 9a and its 302-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McQueeney?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around McQueeney
Survey cells within 31 miles of McQueeney checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 638 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McQueeney
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McQueeney. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SKI LODGE ROAD PROPERTYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- LAKE BREEZE SKI LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PIC N PAC 5Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- KX-68-32-201Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- KX-68-32-309Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- KX-68-32-304Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- KX-68-32-303Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- PIC N PAC 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WINDSOR GYPSUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GEORGIA-PACIFIC MCQUEENEY GYPSUM FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- GEORGIA-PACIFIC MCQUEENEY GYPSUM FACILITYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- ACME BRICK MCQUEENEY PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McQueeney'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 McQueeney.
Total Sites
512
within ~10 miles of McQueeney
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McQueeney
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McQueeney
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McQueeney, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of McQueeney — Toxics Release Inventory (36 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (334 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in McQueeney
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 McQueeney average
Your land is one point inside McQueeney
Everything above resolves to McQueeney as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Guadalupe County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 McQueeney Average
McQueeney Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across McQueeney
- ●One soil character for all of McQueeney
- ●Frost dates read at McQueeney's scale: Feb 6 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McQueeney's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McQueeney
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McQueeney, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McQueeney averages can't show:
We read public map data around McQueeney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McQueeney average
How we know this about McQueeney
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 Guadalupe County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 McQueeney
When does frost risk typically end in McQueeney?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McQueeney typically lands around Feb 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 Feb 27.
When is the first frost in McQueeney?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McQueeney typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 302 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McQueeney?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McQueeney sees about 302 frost-free days — roughly Feb 6 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 27 to Nov 21, about 267 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McQueeney?
The federal record around McQueeney is a meaningful one — 512 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (334), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 McQueeney?
From about Nov 5 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 Dec 5 (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 Dec 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McQueeney's scale — its 9a band and its 302-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McQueeney'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 McQueeney’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McQueeney's own scale — the 2,619 acres it covers and 512 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McQueeney's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 512 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McQueeney, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McQueeney's boundary and the 2,619 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~302-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McQueeney's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around McQueeney checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — McQueeney has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Guadalupe County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McQueeney's 2,619 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Guadalupe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McQueeney's 2,619 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McQueeney you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,619 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 McQueeney-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasMcQueeney sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides