McKenney, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McKenney, 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 McKenney 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 McKenney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McKenney — the short answer
McKenney, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 594 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 594 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 McKenney's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McKenney's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McKenney
Each reading below is measured for McKenney itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcKenney runs about 231 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
MeasuredMcKenney 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 McKenney is in
McKenney sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McKenney's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dinwiddie County.
What Grows in McKenney
Every plant below cleared McKenney's own zone 7b and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McKenney?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around McKenney
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from McKenney, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McKenney
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McKenney. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- McKenney Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Keller Aluminum Furniture of VirginiaUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Ye Old VirginiaUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Earls ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- 3 L Properties Company LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Rochester Button CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- VDOT - McKenney Right of WayUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Aileen IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AT and T L240350Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Sunnyside Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- McKenney TownUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Dixie Oil Co Bulk Facility and McKenney ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McKenney'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 McKenney.
Total Sites
56
within ~10 miles of McKenney
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McKenney
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McKenney
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McKenney, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of McKenney. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in McKenney
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 McKenney average
Your land is one point inside McKenney
Everything above resolves to McKenney as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 594 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 McKenney Average
McKenney Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across McKenney
- ●One soil character for all of McKenney
- ●Frost dates read at McKenney's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McKenney's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McKenney
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McKenney, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McKenney averages can't show:
We read public map data around McKenney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McKenney average
How we know this about McKenney
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 McKenney’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 McKenney
When does frost risk typically end in McKenney?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McKenney typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in McKenney?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McKenney typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McKenney?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McKenney sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 28, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McKenney?
The federal record around McKenney shows 56 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in McKenney?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McKenney's scale — its 7b band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McKenney'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 McKenney’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at McKenney's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 594 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McKenney's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McKenney's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 11 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McKenney, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McKenney's boundary and the 594 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McKenney's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of McKenneylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McKenney's 594 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dinwiddie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dinwiddie 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 Dinwiddie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McKenney's 594 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McKenney you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 594 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 McKenney-wide figureread your own land →
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