Adrian, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Adrian, 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 Adrian 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 Adrian — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Adrian — the short answer
Adrian, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 6a is Adrian's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Adrian's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Adrian
Each reading below is measured for Adrian itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAdrian runs about 189 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
MeasuredAdrian sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Adrian is in
Adrian sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Adrian's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lenawee County.
What Grows in Adrian
Every plant below cleared Adrian's own zone 6a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Adrian?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Adrian
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Adrian, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Adrian
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Adrian. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- United #6156Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- The Cutler-dickerson CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ADRIAN DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 650 ft
- MI DEPT/NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTBrownfields · 650 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 950 ft
- C & J Service (h.jerry Powelka)Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- IS Real Estate LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CITY OF ADRIANBrownfields · 1000 ft
- The Cutler Dickerson CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ACME PRESERVE COToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- Adrian City HallUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FIRST STUDENT INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Adrian'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 Adrian.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Adrian
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Adrian
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Adrian, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Adrian — Toxics Release Inventory (26 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Adrian
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 Adrian average
Your land is one point inside Adrian
Everything above resolves to Adrian as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 city 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 Adrian Average
Adrian Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Adrian
- ●One soil character for all of Adrian
- ●Frost dates read at Adrian's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Adrian's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Adrian
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Adrian, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Adrian averages can't show:
We read public map data around Adrian — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Adrian average
How we know this about Adrian
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Adrian’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Adrian
When does frost risk typically end in Adrian?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Adrian typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Adrian?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Adrian typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Adrian?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Adrian sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 11, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Adrian?
The federal record around Adrian is a meaningful one — 396 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (183), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Adrian?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Adrian's scale — its 6a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Adrian'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 Adrian’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Adrian's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,124 acres it covers and 396 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Adrian's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Adrian's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 25 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 396 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Adrian, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Adrian's boundary and the 5,124 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Adrian's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Adrianlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Adrian's 5,124 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lenawee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lenawee County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Lenawee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Adrian's 5,124 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Adrian you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,124 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 Adrian-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganAdrian sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides