McLean, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — 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, prickly pear, 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.
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McLean — the short answer
McLean, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 16K 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 McLean's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McLean's 240-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 240 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 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 McLean is in
McLean sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McLean's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fairfax County is mostly Piedmont. 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 7b and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia 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 Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 McLean
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from McLean, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McLean
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McLean. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MR FU RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- LANGLEY SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- COOPER INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Langley SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Mars IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EXXON S/S #2-5793Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EXXON CO USA #25793Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- WESTGATE PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- McLean Plaza Office BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Dead Run Pumping StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Fairfax County McLean Gvmt Ctr Fuel SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DYNALECTRON CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 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
4,288
within ~10 miles of McLean
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
34 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
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.
- •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 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 16K 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 7b, averaged across McLean
- ●One soil character for all of McLean
- ●Frost dates read at McLean's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McLean's 7b
- ✓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, Virginia — 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 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in McLean?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McLean typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McLean?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McLean sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 3, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McLean?
The federal record around McLean is a meaningful one — 4,288 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,263), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 McLean?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McLean's scale — its 7b band and its 240-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
7 of the readings below were taken at McLean's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 15,870 acres it covers and 4,288 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McLean's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McLean's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 17 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,288 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McLean, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McLean's boundary and the 15,870 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- McLean sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of McLeanlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McLean's 15,870 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairfax 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 Fairfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McLean's 15,870 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 15,870 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 McLean-wide figureread your own land →