McDowell, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in McDowell, 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 McDowell 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 McDowell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McDowell — the short answer
McDowell, Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 653 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 653 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 6b is McDowell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McDowell's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McDowell
Each reading below is measured for McDowell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcDowell runs about 187 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
MeasuredMcDowell sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 McDowell is in
McDowell sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McDowell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Highland County.
What Grows in McDowell
Every plant below cleared McDowell's own zone 6b and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McDowell?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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.
Documented around McDowell
Spotted lanternfly documented 18 miles from McDowell, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McDowell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McDowell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mountain OasisUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RALSTONS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- STONEWALL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- VDOT McDowell Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- FORMER MID-WAY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- SPLAUN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Millers StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- Highland Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- 34R 1Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- VA DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION (MONTEREY)Brownfields · 6.2 mi
- VDOT Monterey Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- HIGHLAND OIL - BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McDowell'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 McDowell.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McDowell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McDowell
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in McDowell
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 McDowell average
Your land is one point inside McDowell
Everything above resolves to McDowell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 653 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 McDowell Average
McDowell Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across McDowell
- ●One soil character for all of McDowell
- ●Frost dates read at McDowell's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McDowell's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McDowell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McDowell, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McDowell averages can't show:
We read public map data around McDowell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McDowell average
How we know this about McDowell
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 McDowell’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 McDowell
When does frost risk typically end in McDowell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McDowell typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in McDowell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McDowell typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McDowell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McDowell sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 8, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McDowell?
The federal record around McDowell is light — 24 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles 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 McDowell?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McDowell's scale — its 6b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McDowell'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 McDowell’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at McDowell's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 653 acres it covers and 24 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McDowell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McDowell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 22 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 24 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McDowell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McDowell's boundary and the 653 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McDowell's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of McDowelllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McDowell's 653 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Highland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Highland County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Highland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McDowell's 653 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McDowell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 653 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 McDowell-wide figureread your own land →